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THE  CHRISTMAS 
CANTICLES 


By 
GEORGE  ELLIOTT 


Love  came  down  at  Christmas, 
Love  all  lovely.  Love  Divine; 

Love  was  born  at  Christmas, 
Star  and  angels  gave  the  sign. 

— Christina  Rossetti, 


THE  ABINGDON  PRESS 
NEW  YORK  CINCINNATI 


Copyright,  1922,  by 
GEORGE  ELLIOTT 


Printed  in  the  United  States  of  Americft 


TO  MY  WIFE  AND  CHILDREN 

IN  MEMORY   OP 

OUR  MANY  CHRISTMASES 

WHICH  HAVE  REVEALED  TO  ME  THE 
CHRISTIAN  HOME  AS  THE  HOLY  FAMILY; 
ALL  MOTHERHOOD  AS  SACRED  AND 
EVERY  CHILD  AS   "THAT  HOLY  THING." 


BKi^C^ 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

A  Prelude 7 

I.  The  Canticles  of  the  Incarna- 
tion         9 

II.  The  Virgin  Mother— the  First 

New  Testament  Singer 16 

III.  The  Magnificat — the  Madrigal 

of  Mary 32 

IV.  The  Silenced  Priest— the  Sec- 

ond Singer 48 

V.  The  Benedictus — the  Hymn  of 

the  Gospel  Dawn 54 

VI.  The  Day-Spring  from  on  High  .     61 

VII.  The  Angel's  Sermon  Before  the 

Angelic  Anthem 70 

VIII.  "Good  Tidings  of  Great  Joy"  .     78 

IX.  Gloria  in  Excelsis 83 

X.  Naming    the    Child — a    New 

Year's  Meditation 96 

XI.  The  Prophetic  Prince  of  the 

Four  Names 105 

5 


CONTENTS 

PA.GB 

Xn.  The  Sages,  the  Star  and  the 

Saviour 112 

Xni.  The  King  and  the  Kings — an 

%,    Epiphany  Meditation 117 

XIV.  Nunc  Dimittis — the  Swan-Song 

of  a  Saint 123 

XV.  The  Blessed  Boyhood  of  Jesus  .  133 

A  Postlude 139 


A  PRELUDE 

"There's  a  song  in  the  air! 
There's  a  star  in  the  sky!" 

The  Psalter  has  been  called  "the  hymn- 
book  of  all  the  ages."  Its  poetry  is  set 
to  music.  It  is  made  to  be  smig. 
As  Carlyle  says,  all  poetry  is  "musical 
thought."  To  this  collection  of  sacred 
lyrics,  begun  by  David  and  not  com- 
pleted imtil  after  the  exile  in  which 
Hebrew  harps  were  hung  on  the  willows 
beside  the  Babylonian  stream,  the  New 
Testament  adds  another  group  of  Mes- 
sianic psalms,  recorded  by  Luke  in  his 
beautiful  story  of  the  Advent  of  the 
Christ. 

Whenever  heaven  touches  earth  and 
God  and  man  come  together,  the  celestial 
harmonies  take  the  sounds  of  this  world, 
clothe  their  disorder  with  rhythm,  arrange 
their  jangling  sequences  into  melody,  and 
blend  their  harsh  dissonances  into  eu- 
phony. Christmas  lends  a  new  splendor 
to  the  stars  and  a  new  sweetness  to  song. 

7 


THE  CHRISTIVIAS  CANTICLES 

This  little  book  is  born  out  of  nearly 
fifty  years'  meditation  at  Christmas  time 
on  the  Canticles  of  the  Incarnation. 
Four  of  its  chapters  have  appeared  as 
Christmas  editorials  in  the  Methodist 
Review,  These  with  the  others  which 
appear  for  the  first  time  in  print  are  now 
sent  forth  to  all  friends,  known  and  un- 
known, wishing  them  "A  Merry  Christmas 
and  a  Happy  New  Year!" 

George  Elliott. 
New  York  City,  1922. 


THE  CANTICLES  OF  THE 
INCARNATION 

TRADITION  claims  that  Saint  Luke 
was  an  artist,  a  painter,  to  whom  we 
are  indebted  for  the  portrait  of  our 
Lord.  For  that  there  is  little  proof.  But  the 
artistic  temperament  is  revealed  in  his  lit- 
erary style.  Renan  calls  his  Gospel  "the 
most  beautiful  book  in  the  world."  Poetry 
and  music  meet  on  his  pages,  and  even  his 
prose  sings  in  rhythmic  cadence.  He  places 
the  chancel  in  the  very  porch  of  his 
cathedral  of  holy  history  and  many  voices 
sing  at  the  gateway.  The  Virgin  Mother  in 
the  glad  madrigal  of  the  Magnificat;  Zach- 
arias  the  priest  intoning  the  Benedictus, 
song  of  the  Gospel  dawn;  Elisabeth  greet- 
ing her  kinswoman  Mary  in  a  rhythmic 
chant;  and  the  aged  Simeon,  singing  the 
sunset  hymn  of  his  life,  the  Nunc  Dimittis 
— these  are  the  human  quartet  whose 
solos,  on  varied  keys,  succeed  each  other 

with  strange  harmony.  And  overhead  God 
9 


THE  CHRISTMAS  CANTICLES 

sends  an  angelic  chorus  rendering  that 
heavenly  anthem,  the  Gloria  in  Excelsis. 

It  was  fitting  that  the  newborn  Re- 
deemer should  be  greeted  with  psalms  of 
praise.  As  of  old  around  the  ark  of  the 
covenant  the  Levitical  musicians  marched 
with  trumpets  and  cymbals,  and  as  about 
the  throne  of  God  the  ranks  of  shining 
seraphs  render  their  Trisagion  of  "Holy, 
holy,  holy!"  so  now  earth  and  heaven  agree 
in  a  great  Christmas  oratorio.  To  the 
Babe  of  Bethlehem  wealth  and  wisdom 
from  the  East  brought  their  offerings  of 
gold  and  fragrance;  so  Poetry  the  most 
intellectual  and  Music  the  most  spiritual 
of  the  arts  came  also  with  their  beauteous 
tributes  of  psalmody  and  song. 

Criticism,  indeed,  has  seen  a  difficulty  in 
the  picture  of  four  pious  people,  of  humble 
birth  and  surroundings,  suddenly  breaking 
out  in  a  flame  of  poetic  rapture  and  then 
sinking  back  into  prosaic  silence.  But 
criticism  to  reach  correct  results  must  not 
exclude  imagination  and  intuition.  The 
poetic  splendor  of  these  passages  does  not 
lift  them  out  of  the  sphere  of  history.  It 
is  not  unnatural  for  the  Oriental  mind  to 

10 


CANTICLES    OF   THE   INCARNATION 

think  in  symbols  and  for  Oriental  speech  to 
blossom  with  flowers  of  rhetoric.  "All 
passionate  language  does  of  itself  become 
musical.     All  deep  things  are  Song."  ^ 

Abbe  Didon,  in  his  Life  of  Jesus  Christ, 
has  stated  the  case  strongly  and  simply: 

Poetry  is  the  language  of  intense  expression  and 
sublime  ideas.  Among  the  Jews,  as  all  Eastern 
people,  it  overflowed  with  inspiration.  Every  soul 
is  poetic,  and  joy  or  grief  sets  it  singing.  If  ever  a 
heart  should  have  burst  into  an  inspired  hymn,  it 
would  certainly  be  that  of  a  young  maid  chosen  of 
God  to  be  the  mother  of  the  Messiah.  She  borrowed 
from  the  Bible  stories  of  the  women  who  before  her 
had  been  deeply  moved  by  their  maternity,  as  Leah 
and  the  mother  of  Samuel,  the  phrases  which  she 
expanded  and  transfigured.  National  hymns  which 
celebrate  the  mercy,  wisdom,  power,  and  faithful- 
ness of  God,  constantly  return  upon  lips  like  hers 
accustomed  to  sing  them. 

This  is  a  characteristic  of  religious  revi- 
val. Every  moral  and  spiritual  awaking 
of  the  mind  of  man  finds  its  emotional  out- 
let in  sacred  song.  The  early  Christians 
were  a  singing  people.  Luther,  with  his 
rugged  battle-hymns  of  trumpet  meter, 
conquered  northern  Europe  as  much  by 

1  Thomas  Carlyle. 

11 


THE  CHRISTMAS  CANTICLES 

music  and  song  as  by  sermon.  John  Wesley 
well  knew  that  the  lyrics  of  his  brother 
Charles  were  worth  as  much  to  Method- 
ism as  his  own  propaganda  by  voice  and 
pen. 

Back  of  this  fact  lies  the  fundamental 
philosophy  of  all  true  art.  God  is  greatest 
of  all  artists.  He  is  the  supreme  Poet,  and 
Creation  is  his  poem.  He  is  the  Infinite 
Musician,  and  Redemption  is  his  song. 
"Nature  lays  her  beam  in  music,"  and  the 
ancient  myth  of  the  "music  of  the  spheres" 
is  but  a  symbol  of  that  rhythm  which 
underlies  all  the  handiwork  of  God.  The 
true  and  highest  muse  is  the  Holy  Spirit. 
When  the  creative  Spirit  brooded  over 
chaos  he  attuned  it  to  cosmic  melody,  and 
when  the  redemptive  Spirit  touched  the 
lips  of  the  dumb  priest  and  entered  the  life 
of  the  Virgin  of  Nazareth,  the  primeval 
anthem  of  the  morning  stars  became  the 
New  Song  of  the  kingdom  of  God.  The 
loftiest  lyrics  are  not  sparks  from  the  anvil 
of  genius,  but  live  coals  from  the  altar  of 
God.  Music  is  closely  linked  to  worship* 
Singing  is  the  speech  of  holy  joy  as  prayer 

is  the  language  of  holy  desire. 
12 


CANTICLES    OF   THE   INCARNATION 

"Devotion  borrows  music's  tone 
And  music  takes  devotion's  wing." 

All  loftiest  art  was  born  at  the  altar  of 
God  and  to  that  shrine  should  return  with 
its  richest  gifts. 

The  Bible  is  a  book  of  songs.  It  begins 
and  ends,  like  creation,  in  music. 

"From  harmony,  from  heavenly  harmony 
This  universal  frame  began; 
From  harmony  to  harmony 

Through  all  the  compass  of  the  notes  it  ran, 
The  diapason  closing  full  in  man."^ 

Not  only  nature  but  revelation  is  filled 
with  the  Divine  Presence  and  therefore 
vibrant  with  the  rhythm  of  law,  the  melody 
of  beauty,  and  the  harmony  of  love.  The 
Songs  of  Scripture  are  God-Songs.  They 
are  from  God,  about  God,  for  God,  and  to 
God.  God  sings,  for  Zephaniah  says,  "He 
shall  rejoice  over  you  with  singing." 
Nature  sings,  for  we  are  told  that  "the 
mountains  and  the  hills  break  forth  into 
singing"  before  the  Lord.  And  at  last  His- 
tory sings,  for  into  the  discords  of  its  sin 
and  strife  God  sends  his  Son  to  subdue  the 

*  John  Dryden. 

13 


THE  CHRISTMAS  CANTICLES 

harsh  dissonance  of  earth  with  the  har- 
monies of  heaven. 

It  is  because  the  Bible  is  not  a  cold 
treatise  on  either  science,  history,  philoso- 
phy, or  theology,  but  real  literature  in 
which  feeling  and  imagination  play  as  large 
a  part  as  reason  and  understanding,  that 
we  dare  not  interpret  it  by  the  crude  lit- 
eralism of  formal  logic  but  in  terms  of  life 
and  love. 

These  Messianic  Psalms  of  the  New 
Testament  which  we  have  called  the 
Christmas  Canticles,  are  constructed  in  the 
literary  form  of  Old  Testament  Psalmody. 
Hebrew  poetry  is  pecuhar  in  its  structure. 
While  it  is  not  without  music  to  the  ear, 
its  real  rhythm  is  to  the  soul,  that  thought- 
rhythm  expressed  both  by  parallelism  and 
antithesis,  which  Herder  has  described  as 
like  "the  rapid  stroke  of  alternate  wings," 
and  the  "heaving  and  sinking  of  a  troubled 
heart."  This  thought  rhythm  is  like  the 
music  of  nature,  the  beating  of  waves,  the 
swelling  of  tides,  the  throbbing  of  hearts, 
the  coming  and  going  of  light. 

Not  only  in  structure  but  in  substance 
these  canticles  of  Christmas  are  like  ancient 

14 


CANTICLES   OF   THE   INCARNATION 

Hebrew  poetry.  They  repeat  with  new 
emphasis  the  ideas  of  psalmist  and  prophet. 
This  itself  is  a  strong  proof  of  their  genuine- 
ness. Had  they  been  composed  later,  they 
would  have  been  full  of  personal  references 
to  the  Christ  who  had  come,  and  would 
have  been  alive  with  Christian  phrases  like 
the  hymns  heard  by  the  apocalyptic  seer. 
Their  very  reserve  as  to  the  facts  of  the 
incarnation  and  atonement  testifies  to  their 
historic  truth  as  being  salutations  to  the 
newborn  King  and  not  the  reflective 
hymns  of  a  later  generation. 

Christmas  is  the  day  of  songs,  for  on 
this  day  the  music  of  eternity  came  into 
time.  God  is  the  supreme  Poet  and  Jesus 
Christ  his  perfect  Poem.  Can  we  better 
spend  that  festival  week  between 
Christmas  and  the  New  Year  than  in 
studying  the  singers  and  meditating  upon 
the  songs  .'^ 


15 


II 

THE  VIRGIN  MOTHER— THE  FIRST 
NEW  TESTAMENT  SINGER 

SAINT  LUKE  puts  his  choir  of  Mes- 
sianic singers  in  the  porch  of  his 
Gospel;  he  also  leads  us  through 
the  Beautiful  Gate  of  the  Temple  into 
the  court  of  the  women.  Perhaps  it  was 
his  profession  as  a  physician  that  filled 
him  with  feministic  sympathy,  and  it  may 
have  been  helped  by  his  pastorate  of  the 
Philippian  church,  the  center  of  whose 
life  was  a  group  of  holy  women.  A 
tinge  of  the  Lydian  purple  has  possessed 
his  historic  spirit.  It  is  he  who  pictures 
Elisabeth  the  priest's  wife  and  Anna  the 
prophetess;  he  mentions  the  ministering 
women,  the  widow  of  Nain,  the  sisters  of 
Bethany,  and  many  more.  His  is  the 
most  human  of  Gospels,  the  gospel  of 
tenderness  and  tolerance. 

It   seems   quite   certain   that   as   mes- 
sages from  the  lips  of  Joseph  supplied 
16 


THE  VIRGIN  MOTHER 

the  material  for  the  infancy  stories  in 
Matthew,  it  was  personal  memoirs  of  the 
Virgin  Mother  that  inspired  the  first 
three  chapters  of  Luke — the  most  lovely 
literature  of  the  world. 

Mary,  a  maiden  of  Nazareth,  tradi- 
tionally the  daughter  of  Joachim  and 
Anna,  was  probably  related  to  both  the 
tribes  of  Judah  and  Levi.  So  in  her 
Son  are  united  the  royal  and  sacerdotal 
lines.  As  King,  he  sways  the  scepter  of 
universal  dominion;  as  Priest  he  swings 
the  censer  of  perpetual  intercession. 

To  her  home  in  Nazareth  came  Gabriel, 

the   messenger   of   God.     What   was   the 

scene   of   the   annunciation?     Was   it   at 

that  fountain  where  the  girls  of   Galilee 

still  gather.^  or   in   a   garden    where  this 

Rose  of  Hebrew  womanhood  stood  among 

the    lilies    of    the    annunciation  .f^     Better 

still,  and  more  likely,  it  may  have  been 

in  her  own  home,  the  true  sanctuary  of 

all  motherhood.     She  may  have  been  at 

work  weaving  sacred  linen  for  the  Holy 

Place  at  Jerusalem  and  embroidering  them 

with    the    lily-work    which    is    still    her 

symbol.    Or  she  may  have  been  at  prayer. 
17 


THE  CHRISTMAS  CANTICLES 

As  her  body  became  the  shrine  where  met 
the  divine  and  the  human,  so  her  chamber 
was  doubtless  the  true  temple  of  her  wor- 
ship. This  last  is  made  probable  by  the 
phrase  "he  came  in  unto  her." 

Then  she  is  saluted  with  those  heav- 
enly courtesies  which  are  not  as  mean- 
ingless as  those  of  earth.  "Hail,  thou 
highly  favored  one!"  The  angelic  salu- 
tation witnesses  her  fitness  for  the  heav- 
enly honor  of  a  divine  motherhood.  Plena 
gratioel — "full  of  grace,"  there  was  in 
her  nature  such  a  wealth  of  beauty  and 
grace  as  made  her  worthy  among  women 
for  this  high  choice.  And  then  he  an- 
nounces the  mission  of  Mary  and  the 
mystery  of  the  virgin  birth.  Great  and 
sublime  are  many  missions  to  which  God 
has  called  men;  but  surely  there  never 
was  one  so  great  as  this,  the  highest 
which  heaven  ever  addressed  to  a  mortal. 
Through  her  royal  motherhood  the  Eternal 
Son  of  God  came  into  brotherhood  with 
you  and  me.  Can  we  imagine  the  soul 
lifted  at  once  to  such  an  earthly  and  tem-, 
porary  shame  and  such  an  heavenly  and 

eternal  fame.^^ 

18 


THE  VIRGIN  MOTHER 

To  the  daughters  of  Israel  there  was 
no  dream  so  divine  as  that  of  Messianic 
motherhood.  Before  the  gates  of  Eden 
were  bolted  with  flame,  there  came  the 
Protevangelion,  "The  seed  of  the  woman 
shall  bruise  the  serpent's  head,"  and  the 
sad  face  of  the  first  mother  fallen  in 
sorrow  at  the  foot  of  the  Tree  of  the 
Knowledge  of  Good  and  Evil  is  lighted 
by  a  gleam  from  the  looks  of  Jesus  flung 
back  through  the  ages.  And  now  promise 
comes  to  fulfillment  and  that  first  name 
of  the  mother  of  all  living,  EVA,  is  trans- 
posed into  AVEy  Hail!  that  greets  the 
mother  of  Him  who  shall  again  open 
the  gates  of  paradise  and  lead  us  to  the 
Tree  of  Life. 

The  primal  grace  of  her  character  is 
purity.  It  is  as  the  Virgin  Mary  that  we 
honor  her.  Hers  is  the  charm  of  the 
undefiled  soul.  No  painter  has  violated 
this  tradition.  While  she  fills  in  Chris- 
tian art  the  place  taken  by  Venus  in 
paganism,  it  is  with  a  marvelous  differ- 
ence. The  gaze  of  Mary  is  always  one 
of  mingled  innocence  and  sadness.  This 
charm  of  chastity  is  the  inner  secret  of 

19 


THE  CHRISTMAS  CANTICLES 

man's  reverence  for  woman.  There  can 
be  no  shock  to  human  nature  greater 
than  loss  of  faith  in  this  which  is  the 
pride  and  glory  of  the  world. 

Another  trait  is  her  submissiveness. 
*'Behold  the  handmaid  of  the  Lord.  Be 
it  unto  me  according  to  thy  word."  God 
stands  on  ceremony  with  his  finite  crea- 
tures; he  awaits  our  consent  to  his 
mandate.  Her  soul  did  not  tinge  with 
any  colors  of  its  own  the  white  ray  of 
the  heavenly  will;  she  is  filled  with  the 
pure  simlight  of  the  divine  purpose.  She, 
the  daughter  of  Abraham,  is  called  to  a 
test  of  fidelity  not  less  severe  than  his, 
is  called  to  the  surrender  of  the  dearest 
possession  of  maidenhood,  her  fair  fame; 
is  called  to  endure  the  suspicion  of  her 
betrothed,  and  the  possible  scorn  of 
friends.  And  her  pure  soul  proceeds  to 
penetrate  the  black  cloud  of  humiliation 
with  the  white  light  of  holy  self-abnega- 
tion. The  modern  craze  for  self-expression, 
born  of  fake  psychology,  is  a  poor  thing 
beside  the  nobler  task  of  winning  a  self 
which  is  worthy  of  expression. 

Hers  was  a  true  patriotism.     We  have 

20 


THE  VIRGIN  MOTHER 

already  noted  the  passionate  hope  of 
Messianic  motherhood.  No  women  have 
ever  been  more  intensely  national  in 
spirit  than  the  daughters  of  Israel.  Love 
of  their  historic  ideals  is  mingled  with 
the  life-blood  in  their  veins.  This  is  the 
supreme  need  of  America  and  of  every 
land.  When  women  become  frivolous, 
selfish,  and  vain,  men  will  be  vicious, 
dishonest,  and  brutal.  No  great  cause 
can  ever  succeed  without  the  aid  of 
womanhood.  Not  in  a  man's  way,  nor 
by  abandoning  her  nobler  functions  for 
his,  but  from  the  imperial  throne  of  a 
divine  motherhood  shall  she  rule  the  race. 
This  is  the  woman's  patriotism,  whose 
theme  soimds  again  and  again  in  the 
Song  of  Deborah,  the  Hymn  of  Hannah, 
and  the  canticle  of  the  Magnificat, 

The  thoughtfulness  of  Mary  is  sig- 
nificant. Her  outburst  into  song  is  excep- 
tional; for  the  most  part  hers  is  the 
reserved  beauty  of  a  quiet  life.  She  is 
sparing  of  speech.  The  gospel  has  re- 
corded this  phase  of  her  psychology: 
"She  considered  in  herself";  "she  pon- 
dered in  her  heart."     Who  shall  disclose 

21 


THE  CHRISTMAS  CANTICLES 

the  hidden  poetry  of  a  mother's  heart? 
Men  and  women,  have  you  ever  allowed 
yourselves  to  guess  how  deeply  the  little 
things  of  your  lives  have  sunk  into  your 
mother's  soul  and  there  formed  that 
fairest  mosaic  of  her  thought  of  you? 

Her  thoughtfulness  prepared  the  way 
for  her  great  renunciation.  The  sword 
soon  enters  her  heart.  All  parents  must 
faintly  feel  a  like  experience.  The  coming 
of  our  children  to  independent  life  produces 
a  perplexity  hard  to  understand  and 
harder  still  to  bear.  At  Cana,  at  Caper- 
naum, and  at  Calvary  she  passed  through 
both  a  spiritual  and  a  physical  bereave- 
ment. This  is  the  pathetic  history  of  the 
generations,  "Mine,  yet  mine  no  more!" 

This  human  tragedy  of  life  and  love 
has  its  compensation  of  high  joyfulness. 
Her  hymn  is  one  of  triumphant  gladness. 
''Mater  Dolorosa,''  "Our  Lady  of  Sorrows," 
she  shall  share  in  the  gift  of  Pentecost; 
she  is  now  nearest  the  throne  of  glory. 

What  is  the  true  glory  of  Mary?    We 

must    lay    aside    both    the    traditions    of 

Rome  and  the  prejudices  of  Protestantism 

— those  colored  glasses  we  too  frequently 
22 


THE  VIRGIN  MOTHER 

use  to  avoid  the  glare  of  Papal  super- 
stitions— if  we  want  a  true  portrait  of 
the  Virgin  Mother. 

The  dangerous  dogma  of  the  immaculate 
conception  of  the  blessed  Virgin  was 
delivered  by  Pope  Pius  IX,  in  spite  of 
the  fact  that  it  had  been  opposed  by 
many  of  the  greatest  theologians,  both 
Roman  Catholic  and  Protestant,  in  all 
the  Christian  centuries.  And  the  Vatican 
Council  confirmed  the  doctrine  by  de- 
claring the  Pope  infallible!  There  is  no 
hint  of  this  papal  heresy  in  the  Holy 
Scriptures,  although  they  do  ascribe  the 
highest  honor  to  Mary. 

Without  doubt,  Mariolatry  grew  by  the 

perversion  of  a  partly  lost  truth  of  the 

incarnation — the  need  of  a  human   God 

and    of    the    divine    Fatherhood.      When 

Christ  had  lost  his  humanness  in  mediaeval 

dogmatism,   and   when  men  saw  in  him 

only   the   stern   Judge  and   King  of  the 

Byzantine  mosaics,  a  world  submerged  in 

sensuality   and   strife  found   its  path   to 

the  heart  of  God  through  the  mother  love 

of  Mary.     One  can  see  the  result  to-day 

in  all  Roman  CathoKc  coimtries.     There 
23 


THE  CHRISTMAS  CANTICLES 

is  real  pathos  and  a  true,  though  dis- 
torted, meaning  in  the  tawdry  dolls 
surrounded  by  candles  in  the  shrines  and 
chapels  dedicated  to  the  Virgin,  and  the 
heart-breaking  appeal,  Maria  Helf!  The 
bruised  heart  needs  not  philosophy  but 
compassion.  The  Dark  Ages  would  have 
been  saved  from  their  blindness  and  gloom 
had  they  kept  the  Christ  who  wept  as  well 
as  him  that  shall  judge.  For  in  our  Lord 
there  is  not  only  the  manly  brain  but  the 
womanly  heart,  and  we  shall  ever  be  con- 
quered by  the  "mother  in  his  eyes." 

Poetic  Uterature  abounds  in  these  per- 
verted pictures  of  the  Virgin  Mother, 
which  if  persisted  in  would  as  surely 
destroy  her  humanness  as  mediaeval  dog- 
matism that  of  her  Son.  Such  a  great 
Christian  Platonist  as  Henry  Vaughan 
dared  to  write: 
"Bright  Queen  of  Heaven!    God's  Virgin  Spouse, 

The  glad  world's  blessed  maid! 
Whose  beauty  tied  life  to  thy  house 

And  brought  us  saving  aid. 
Thou  art  the  true  Lover's-Knot;  by  thee 

God  is  made  our  ally. 
And  man's  inferior  essence  he 
With  his  did  dignify." 
24 


THE  VIRGIN  MOTHER 

These  lovely  lines  need  not  be  interpreted 
in  terms  of  Roman  dogma,  as  must  this 
audacious  passage  from  Dante  Gabriel 
Rossetti's  poem  "Ave": 

"Mother  of  the  fair  delight. 
Thou  handmaid  perfect  in  God's  sight. 
Now  sitting  fourth  beside  the  Three, 
Thyself  a  woman-Trinity, 
Being  a  daughter  born  to  God, 
Mother  of  Christ  from  stall  to  rood. 
And  wife  unto  the  Holy  Ghost." 

More  moderate  and  not  without  a  some- 
what exaggerated  vision  of  the  real  truth 
are    these    stanzas    from    Robert    Steven 
Hawker : 
**A  shape  like  folded  light,  embodied  air; 

Yet  wreathed  with  flesh  and  warm; 
All  that  of  heaven  is  feminine  and  fair. 

Molded  in  human  form, 

**She  stood,  the  Lady  Shechinah  of  earth, 

A  chancel  for  the  sky. 
Where  woke  to  breath  and  beauty  God's  own  Birth 
For  men  to  see  him  by." 

There  is,  however,  a  real  Nemesis  in 

Mariolatry.     It  wrongs  the  human  race 

and  cheats  Christ's  sisters  of  their  sweet 

queen.    When  at  last  removed  from  human 

sympathies,  if  she  had  no  knowledge  of 
25 


THE  CHRISTMAS  CANTICLES 

sin  and  has  assumed  a  quasi-divinity, 
then  her  tenderness  is  lost,  and  even  now 
Romanists  are  beginning  to  call  upon 
Saint  Joseph  and  Saint  Anna  to  speak  to 
the  Virgin  for  them.  Safer,  sounder,  and 
sweeter  is  the  vision  of  Mrs.  Browning 
of  this  "blessedest  of  women": 

"I  am  not  proud! 
Albeit  in  my  flesh  God  sent  his  Son; 
Albeit  over  him  my  head  is  bowed 
As  others  bow  before  him.     Still  my  heart 
Bows  lower  than  their  knees.    O  centuries. 
Say  of  me  as  the  Heavenly  said,  *Thou  blessedest 
Of  women!*    Blessedest, 
Not  holiest,  noblest— no  high  name 
Whose  hight  misplaced  may  pierce  me  like  a  shame 
Where  I  sit  meek  in  Heaven." 

Mary  has  a  true  glory,  but  a  glory  that 
we  mortals  may  share.  We  may  claim 
the  high  qualities  that  made  her  "highly 
favored.*'  Ours  may  be  that  stainless 
purity,  sweet  submission,  lofty  enthusi- 
asm, thoughtful  tenderness,  and  lowly 
self-sacrifice  which  have  made  her  worthy 
to  be  praised  by  all  the  generations.  So 
Keble  sings: 

^^Ave  Maria!  thou  whose  name 

All  but  adoring  love  may  claim, 
26 


THE  VIRGIN  MOTHER 

Yet  may  we  reach  thy  shrine. 
For  he,  thy  Son  and  Saviour,  vows 
To  crown  all  lowlj%  lofty  brows 

With  love  and  joy  like  thine. 

"Blessed  is  the  womb  that  bore  him,  blest 
The  bosom  where  his  lips  were  pressed; 

But  rather  blest  are  they 
Who  hear  his  word  and  keep  it  well 
The  living  homes  where  Christ  may  dwell 

And  never  pass  away." 

All  motherhood  and  childhood  are  glori- 
fied by  the  incarnation.  The  curse  of 
Eden  has  been  transformed  into  a  crown. 
Every  child  has  become  "that  holy  thing." 
Everj^  theory  of  woman's  work  which 
makes  anything  nobler  than  maternity  is 
condemned  by  the  blessed  example  of 
this  White  Rose  of  Israel,  this  fairest 
flower  of  w^omanhood.  May  this  be  true 
of  every  man  and  woman: 

"Make  her  hands  like  the  hands  of  Mary 
Blessing  the  little  one; 
Make  her  lips  like  the  lips  of  Mary 
Kissing  her  Blessed  Son." 

Mary  did  not  doubt  as  did  Zacharias 
when  Gabriel  came  with  his  astounding 

27 


THE  CHRISTMAS  CANTICLES 

annunciation.  She  wondered  as  to  the 
mode — "How  can  this  come  to  me,  an 
mimarried  woman?" — but  she  questioned 
not  the  fact,  and  asked  no  sign  nor  proof. 
Strange  paradox!  Mother  and  virgin!  but 
not  more  strange  than  the  union  of  God 
and  man.  So  faith  brings  to  reason  its 
high  assurance. 

We  may  not  wish  to  use  the  ancient 
title  given  to  Mary,  "Mother  of  God" — 
but  she  was  the  mother  of  Him  in  whom 
God  was  manifested  in  the  flesh.  She 
was  not  a  goddess-mother;  she  was  a  truly 
human  mother.  Out  of  her  flesh  He  took 
flesh;  his  bodily  frame  was  inherited  from 
his  human  mother.  Probably  some  fea- 
tiu'es  of  his  face  and  form  resembled  her 
and  revealed  his  earthly  heredity.  Did 
he  also  inherit  a  human  soul  from  her.f* 
Biblical  psychology  never  shall  be  able 
to  decide  between  the  contending  theories 
of  Creationism  and  Traducianism.  Ter- 
tullian  and  Jerome,  Augustine  and 
Pelagius,  and  theologians  in  all  time  will 
differ.  Even  a  materialist  like  Lucretius 
was  puzzled  with  this  problem  of  par- 
entage: 

28 


THE  VIRGIN  MOTHER 

"For  it  cannot  be  said  what  are  the  conditions  of 
the  soul. 
Whether  it  is  itself  begotten  or  produced  in  those 
that  are  begotten." 

Theology,  in  the  formula  of  the  Council 
of  Chalcedon,  has  rather  doubtfully  denied 
the  element  of  personality  to  the  human- 
ity of  our  Lord.  But  dare  we  do  it  when 
we  remember  that  personality  is  the 
chief  est  of  all  human  attributes?  Whether 
his  human  soul  came  by  inheritance  from 
his  mother  or  by  the  direct  creation  of 
God,  of  one  thing  we  are  assured — ^he 
was  the  Son  of  Man,  possessing  all  human 
quahties,  and  the  heir  and  representative 
of  all  mankind. 

While  physically  he  was  the  Son  of 
Mary,  and  may  have  resembled  her  in 
form  and  feature,  psychically  he  was  the 
Child  of  all  humanity,  as  spiritually  he 
was  the  Son  of  God.  He  is  Kinsman  of 
all  kindreds.  Art  has  tried  to  express 
this  truth  by  portraying  him  with  racial 
features  as  to  his  bodily  form.  Italian 
artists  paint  him  in  lovely  Latin  lines; 
French,  German,  and  Spanish  painters 
have   pictured   him   as   transformed   into 

29 


THE  CHRISTMAS  CANTICLES 

their  own  national  types;  and,  even  now, 
Hindoo  Christians  are  dreaming  of  an 
Oriental  Christ.  He  does  belong  to  all 
races  and  each  can  rightly  claim  him  as 
its  own,  but  his  full  being  is  composite 
of  them  all.  We  do  not  know  in  what 
manner  God  may  reveal  himself  to  other 
worlds. 

"Nor  in  our  little  day. 
May  his  devices  with  the  heavens  be  guessed, 

His  pilgrimage  to  thread  the  Milky  Way 
Or  his  bestowals  there  be  manifest."^ 

In  some  future  time  we  may  compare 
with  the  citizens  of  the  constellations  "in 
what  guise  He  trod  the  Pleiades,  the  Lion, 
the  Bear,"  and — 

"O,  be  prepared,  my  Soul! 
To  read  the  inconceivable,  to  scan 
The  million  forms  of  God  thoise  Stars  unroll 
"When,  in  our  turn,  we  show  to  them  a  Man."^ 

And  so  the  Virgin  mother  soon  came 
to  see  that  her  Son  was  more  than  her 
Son — that  he  had  a  "Father's  house"  at 
Jerusalem  as  well  as  the  humble  home 
at  Nazareth,   that  there  were  mysteries 

1  Alice  Meynell. 

30 


THE  VIRGIN  MOTHER 

in  his  inward  thought  that  even  her 
maternal  insight  could  not  penetrate,  and 
that  he  could  find  a  higher  brotherhood 
and  motherhood  in  all  who  could  share 
his  harmony  with  the  Father's  will. 

All  this  does  not  belittle  the  glory  of 
Mary.  It  was  high  honor  that  she  be- 
came the  frail  vessel  of  earth  through 
which  the  whole  of  humanity  received 
their  Child  and  Brother.  No  higher 
function  has  ever  been  granted  to  earthly 
flesh  and  blood  and  of  that  honor  none 
could  have  been  more  worthy  than  she. 

"Praise  Mary  Mother! 
Mary,  none  other 
Welcome  might  the  Holy  Ghost 
Because  her  soul  was  pure  the  most."^ 

For  us  all  she  brought  forth  the  Christ. 
Shall  we  not ,  share  her  joy  and  make 
our  own  rhapsody  her  Messianic  Psalm, 
the  Magnificat? 

2  Lionel  Johnson. 


Ill 

THE  MAGNIFICAT—TRE 
MADRIGAL  OF  MARY 

THE  heart  of  the  Nazarene  maiden, 
made  happy  by  the  promise  of 
Messianic  motherhood,  a  gladness 
darkened  by  the  gathering  clouds  of  social 
misunderstanding,  seeks  the  solace  of 
holy  sisterhood.  She  finds  it  far  away 
in  the  home  at  Hebron,  near  the  oak  of 
Father  Abraham,  the  graves  of  the  patri- 
archs, and  that  of  her  great  ancestress, 
Sarah,  to  whom  had  come,  as  to  her  kins- 
woman Elisabeth,  the  miracle  of  sterile 
age  suddenly  flowering  into  fertility. 

It  was  a  long  journey  southward  across 
the  plains  of  Esdraelon,  filled  with  the 
martial  memories  of  Gideon  and  Barak, 
and  past  the  brook  Kishon  beside  which 
Deborah  sang.  Perhaps  she  quenched 
her  thirst  at  Jacob's  Well,  where  later  her 
Son  shall  lead  an  erring  woman  to  the 
light.    Then  through  Jerusalem  and  Beth- 

32 


THE  MAGNIFICAT 

lehem,  past  Rachers  tomb  and  the  fields 
where  Ruth  had  "stood  among  the  golden 
corn."  Then  by  rugged  roads  up  the 
high  hills  to  Hebron.  Here  these  two 
common  village  women  met  and  by  their 
meeting  were  transformed  into  prophet- 
esses and  poetesses  by  the  overshadowing 
Spirit  of  God.  Surely  some  memories  of 
the  road  are  in  the  rapturous  psalm  that 
Mary  sings.  The  long  journey  had  sug- 
gested many  thoughts,  and  her  presence 
had  added  a  new  sacredness  to  the  places 
she  had  passed. 

"Blest  earth,  whereon  she  trod. 
Put  forth  your  fragrance  sweet: 
Blest  hills  that  felt  her  feet 
The  mother  with  her  God. 

"More  blest  ye  friends,  whose  guest 
She  now  doth  silence  break, 
Of  heavenly  things  to  speak, 
And  where  her  footsteps  rest."^ 

Any  touch  of  sorrow  that  checked  the 
rising  rapture  of  her  spirit  was  ended  at 
once  by  the  salutation  of  Elisabeth.  She 
greets  her  young  relation  with  the  first 
beatitude  of  the  New  Testament.     Like 

I  The  Paris  Breviary. 

33 


THE  CHRISTMAS  CANTICLES 

the  canticles,  it  is  expressed  in  Hebrew 
rhythm  and  in  two  strophes  of  four  lines 
each: 

"Blest  among  women  art  thou 
And  blessed  the  fruit  of  thy  womb! 

And  whence  this  to  me 
That  the  mother  of  my  Lord  should  visit  me? 

"For  lo!  as  the  voice  of  thy  greeting  reached  my  ears, 
The  babe  in  my  womb  leaped  for  joy. 
And  blessed  is  she  who  believed  the  fulfillment 
Of  the  Lord's  words  to  her." 

It  is  pleasant  to  meet  a  friend,  but 
divine  is  the  delight  when  the  presence 
of  a  third  one,  the  Holy  Spirit,  makes 
understanding  secure  and  sympathy  per- 
fect. And  now  her  spirit,  to  whom  that 
Holy  Presence  has  already  come  in  adum- 
bration of  the  approaching  birth,  breaks 
out  in  sacred  song.  Her  hymn  is  a  mosaic 
of  the  psalmody  of  Israel.  She  is  like  a 
Puritan  maiden  to  whom  the  phrases  of 
Holy  Writ  have  become  the  native  atmos- 
phere of  thought  and  speech.  She  must 
have  known  by  heart  many  Hebrew 
hymns,  for  the  Magnificat  contains  at 
least  fifteen  Old  Testament  phrases,  inter- 
woven and  transmuted  into  a  new  beauty 
34 


THE  MAGNIFICAT 

and  meaning.  "The  pure  heart  makes 
the  best  Psalter."  Shall  we  be  astonished 
if  the  humble  consciousness  of  her  high 
and  holy  designation  as  the  Mother  of 
the  Lord  draws  forth  from  Marj-'s  heart 
and  lips  the  most  magnificent  cry  of  joy 
that  ever  leaped  from  the  human  soul? 

The  Magnificat  links  the  old  dispensa- 
tion and  the  new,  it  is  an  interlude  be- 
tween the  Law  and  the  Gospel.  It  is 
the  swan  song  of  Hebraism  and  an  over- 
ture for  Christianity.  It  finds  its  basic 
material  in  the  hymn  that  Hannah  san.<^ 
after  the  birth  of  her  son  Samuel.  But 
a  new  spirit  inspires  this  canticle.  There 
is  a  legend  that  Mary  found  a  flower 
without  perfume  in  the  garden  at  Hebron 
and,  having  touched  it,  that  flower  has 
been  filled  with  fragrance  ever  since.  So 
she  took  the  triumphant  ode  of  a  proud 
woman  of  the  past  and  filled  it  with  the 
sweetness  of  her  gentler  spirit. 

The  Magnifix^at  is  a  song  of  the  soul. 
"My  soul  doth  magnify  the  Lord."  Soon 
the  shepherds  shall  hear  a  chorus  in  the 
sky,  but  she  finds  one  in  her  heart.  Not 
the    lips    alone,    but    the    inward    being 

35 


THE  CHRISTMAS  CANTICLES 

sings.  The  faculties  of  mind  and  heart 
form  a  choir  for  the  praise  of  God.  So 
may  all  that  is  within  us  bless  his  holy 
name.  Reason  with  its  majestic  bass. 
Love  with  its  full-voiced  soprano,  Con- 
science with  clear-toned  tenor — all  are  led 
by  Will  in  the  praise  of  the  Lord.  "The 
Lord" — that  is  the  keynote  of  her  song. 
It  is  a  true  Te  Deum,  full  of  suggested 
doxologies.  There  is  an  underlying  rhythm 
of  life,  an  inward  music  that  the  soul 
alone  can  sing,  a  secret  heaven  in  the 
breast  where  already  the  choirs  of  glory 
have  begun  their  harmonies. 

God  is  the  supreme  theme  of  all  music 
and  poetry.  "Sing  unto  the  Lord,"  cry 
the  minstrels  of  the  past.  He  inspires  the 
song  of  Moses  as  he  chants,  "The  Lord 
is  my  strength  and  my  song,"  and  Mary 
echoes  that  strain  of  old,  "I  will  sing  of 
the  mercies  of  the  Lord." 

The  Magnificat  celebrates  the  might  of 

God.    Elisabeth  had  praised  Mary,  but  the 

meek  maiden  transfers  the  eulogy  to  the 

great  and  mighty  God.    It  is  not  an  answer 

to  the  greeting  of  Elisabeth,  nor  is  it  an 

ascription  of  adoration  to  the  Almighty;  it 
36 


THE  MAGNIFICAT 

is,  rather,  a  (description  of  the  worshipful 
meditation  going  on  in  mind  and  heart. 
She  is  overpowered  with  a  sense  of  the 
divine  greatness  and  adoringly  prostrates 
her  finite  littleness  before  the  vision  of 
the  Infinite  One.  It  is  a  comfort  in  our 
weakness  to  know  that  we  have  a  great 
God.  Our  frailty  takes  courage  when  we 
can  hide  under  the  shadow  of  the  divine 
strength.  The  universe  has  a  single  source 
of  power — it  is  the  arm  of  God.  Not 
only  is  it  true,  as  Mary  sings,  "He  hath 
done  a  deed  of  might  with  his  arm,"  but 
back  of  all  forces  works  the  Omnipotent 
will  of  God. 

The  Magnificat  sees  the  Almighty  God 
as  the  master  of  history.  All  earthly 
pomp  and  power  vanish  at  his  touch. 
The  new  life  that  stirs  within  the  Virgin 
Mother  shall  subdue  all  mundane  strength. 
Gibbon  remembered  a  phrase  of  this  song 
as  he  sat  on  the  steps  of  the  Capitol  at 
Rome  and  planned  The  Decline  and  Fall 
of  the  Roman  Empire.  So  passed  and  shall 
pass  all  earthly  priests  and  potentates — 
Pilate  and  Herod,  Caiaphas  and  Caesar, 
Sanhedrin  and  Senate — but  God  lives  and 

37 


THE  CHRISTMAS  CANTICLES 

Christ,  the  Son  of  the  Most  High,  lives, 
and  shall  live  and  reign  forevermore. 

The  Magnificat  in  one  phrase  pictures 
the  moral  character  of  God.  **Holy  is 
his  Name!''  Isaiah  seven  hundred  years 
before  had  seen  the  divine  splendor  and 
contemplated  the  divine  character,  inter- 
preted for  him  by  the  seraph's  Tersanctus, 
**Holy,  holy,  holy!"  And  his  favorite 
name  for  Jehovah  was  "the  Holy  One 
of  Israel."  And  that  most  evangelical 
prophet  in  his  message  of  hope  to  his 
own  age  had  promised  a  mystic  birth  of 
a  delivering  Prince — a  dream  which  be- 
came an  ideal  of  Israel  to  be  fulfilled  in 
the  future.  And  now,  with  that  won- 
derful birth  starting  songs  in  her  soul, 
Isaiah's  vision  becomes  her  own,  and  her 
inner  life  is  flooded  with  the  white  light 
of  the  holiness  of  God. 

The  Magnificat  magnifies  the  mercy  of 
God.  We  join  with  her  as  we  sing  Heber's 
glorious  hymn  to  the  blessed  Trinity: 
"Holy,  holy,  holy,  merciful  and  mighty." 
Religion  never  can  rest  in  the  natural 
attributes  of  God.     If  he  were  nothing 

but  strength,  we  should  be  afraid  of  him 

38 


THE  MAGNIFICAT 

and  flee  from  him.  It  is  highest  joy  to 
know  that  his  boundless  power  is  ruled 
by  a  huge  tenderness.  God  is  not  only 
great  but  good,  and  goodness  is  the  high- 
est greatness.  "Saviour"  is  in  the  first 
strophe  of  her  song  and  "Mercy"  in  the 
last.  It  is  a  strain  echoed  a  little  later 
in  the  Benedictus  when  the  husband  of 
Elisabeth  tells  of  "the  tender  mercy  of 
our  God."  Mercy  is  a  little  gift  in  human 
lives  but  in  the  divine  nature  it  becomes 
clothed  with  his  greatness.  It  is  no 
longer  a  slowly  dropped  cordial  from  a 
jeweled  vase,  or  the  trickling  of  a  slender 
rill,  but  it  becomes  wide  and  wealthy  as 
sunlight,  as  broad  and  bright  as  the  skies, 
as  impartial  as  the  heavenly  gift  of  rain. 
It  is  a  celestial  river  rising  in  the  heart 
of  God,  which  shall  flood  the  earth  with 
the  river  of  salvation.  And  "Saviour" 
was  a  new  word  to  the  pagan  world.  It 
filled  that  dark  realm  of  unrest  and 
despair  with  wonder  and  a  new  hope. 
There  is  an  old  story  of  a  Roman  orator 
who  had  seen  it  somewhere  engraved  on 
a  tombstone  and  wrote,  "Salvator — a  new 
word  but  very  beautiful  it  seems  to  me!" 

39 


THE  CHRISTMAS  CANTICLES 

But  it  was  an  old  word  to  Israel,  w^ho  had 
heard  Jehovah  speak:  "Look  unto  me  and 
be  ye  saved,  all  ye  ends  of  the  earth." 
Now  it  burst  forth  big  with  new  mean- 
ings and  bright  with  higher  hopes.  The 
message  of  mercy  has  gone  singing  down 
the  Christian  centuries.  We  hear  its 
echo  in  such  strains  as  Johann  Rothe,  the 
Moravian,  sings  in  a  hymn  which,  like 
the  Magnificat^  is  a  mosaic  of  many  pas- 
sages of  Scripture: 

"O  love,  thou  bottomless  abyss, 

My  sins  are  swallowed  up  in  thee; 
Covered  is  my  unrighteousness, 

No  spot  of  guilt  remains  in  me; 
TVTiile  Jesus'  blood  through  earth  and  skies 
Mercy,  free  boundless  mercy,  cries!" 

And  Charles  Wesley  in  that  historic  hymn 
which  is  one  of  the  "birth  songs  of  the 
Evangelical  Revival,"  shouts  shortly  after 
his  own  conversion: 

"'Tis  mere}"  all!  let  heaven  adore. 
Let  angel  minds  inquire  no  more." 

For  mercy  is  the  attribute  by  which  man 
rises  to  share  the  holiness  and  be  pro- 
tected by  the  power  of  God.    It  modulates 
40 


THE  MAGNIFICAT 

the  minor  chant  of  the  "still  sad  music 
of  humanity,"  lost  in  sin  and  sorrow,  and 
turns  it  into  the  triumphant  melody  of 
the  new  song  of  ransomed  souls — "Salva- 
tion unto  our  God  and  to  the  Lamb." 

The  Magnificat  is  the  Marseillaise  both 
of  a  spiritual  and  a  social  democracy. 
Mary  knows  that  her  exaltation  from  the 
low  estate  of  a  slave  girl  (the  literal  mean- 
ing of  the  word  rendered  "handmaid") 
to  be  honored  in  the  praises  of  all  coming 
generations,  that  the  choice  of  a  country 
carpenter's  bride  to  be  the  mother  of  the 
Messiah — that  these  are  divine  testimonies 
to  the  equal  standing  of  all  souls  before 
the  sovereignty  of  God. 

But  why  does  our  democratic  songstress 
use  the  past  tense  when  she  declares  "He 
hath  scattered  the  proud  in  the  imagina- 
tion of  their  heart,  he  hath  deposed  dynasts 
from  their  thrones".^  Certainly,  there  is 
little  reason  for  such  grammatical  explana- 
tions as  that  she  spoke  in  Hebrew,  using, 
as  was  common,  its  past  tense  in  the 
future  sense,  nor  that  it  is  a  Greek  gnomic 
aorist  used  to  describe  the  habitual. 
What  is  surely  meant  is  that  what  has 
41 


THE  CHRISTMAS  CANTICLES 

already  come  into  her  own  experience  by 
the  angelic  annunciation  and  the  Holy 
Spirit's  presence  is  the  seed  of  that  com- 
ing kingdom  whose  full  blossom  and 
fruitage  will  be  spiritual  liberty,  equality 
of  human  rights,  and  perfect  fraternity  of 
all  souls.  The  incarnation  of  God  in  man 
is  the  necessary  end  of  all  autocracy  in 
government  and  society. 

It  is  not  enough  to  claim  that  the 
democratic  movement  in  history  has  come 
from  our  Lord's  teaching  of  the  Father- 
hood of  God  and  the  brotherhood  of 
man.  Modem  freedom  is  more  than  the 
fruitage  of  a  mere  didactic  message.  Its 
germ  was  actually  sown  in  the  person  of 
Christ.  By  the  incarnation  of  God  in  the 
form  of  a  Jewish  carpenter,  a  new  picture 
of  personal  worth  has  come  to  all  human 
thought;  and  by  the  atonement  in  which 
*'he  tasted  death  for  every  man,"  he  has 
enabled  all  humble  souls  to  dye  their 
rags  of  serfdom  in  that  purple  flood  of 
sacrificial  love  which  transforms  them 
into  the  robes  of  royalty.  The  divine 
democracy  is  not  a  Marxian  socialism, 
leveling  down  to  a  proletariat  standard, 

42 


THE  MAGNIFICAT 

but  a  lifting  up  of  all  life  imtil  all  men 
may  share  with  Christ  his  kingship. 

The  history  of  the  world  is  still  stirred 
by  this  Messianic  revolution.  Every 
Christmas  day  is  a  true  Independence 
Day  for  all  mankind.  Thrones  are  still 
tottering  at  the  touch  of  his  scepter. 
When  a  stable  and  a  carpenter  shop  are 
made  the  mansions  of  God's  Anointed 
and  a  cross  becomes  his  throne,  all  social 
selfishness  and  injustice,  all  business  base- 
ness and  greed,  all  political  despotism  and 
cruelty,  are  doomed. 

"Almighty  God  to  all  mankind  on  Christmas  Day 
said  he: 
*I  rent  you  from  the  old  red  hills,  and  rending  made 

you  free. 
There  was  charter,  there  was  challenge  in  a  blast 

of  breath  I  gave; 
You  can  be  all  things  other;  you  cannot  be  a  slave. 
You  shall  be  tired  and  tolerant  of  fancies  as  they 

fade, 
But  if  men  doubt  the  charter,  you  shall  call  on 

the  crusade — 
Trumpet  and  torch  and  catapult,  cannon  and  blow 

and  blade. 
Because  it  was  my  challenge  to  all  the  things  I 
made.'  " 

Neither  Mary  nor  her  Son  would  have 

43 


THE  CHRISTMAS  CANTICLES 

indorsed  all  the  teachings  of  these  stirring 
lines  by  Gilbert  Keith  Chesterton.  Jesus 
Christ  will  not  enforce  his  Charter  of 
Democracy  by  cannon  or  by  sword.  His 
kingdom  cometh  not  by  observation.  The 
weapons  of  his  holy  warfare  are  not  carnal 
but  spiritual.  Nor  will  its  final  victory 
be  through  political  methods.  Nothing  but 
a  birth  from  above  opens  the  doors  of 
his  kingdom.  The  divine  democracy  will 
triumph  by  the  entrance  of  Christ  into 
human  hearts,  the  transformation  of  life, 
and  the  supplanting  of  selfishness  by  the 
spirit  of  brotherhood.  But  although  its 
source  is  spiritual  its  results  will  be 
external.  A  Christianity  that  is  not 
applied  is  denied.  Earthly  kings  must 
be  deposed  if  the  King  of  kings  is  to  rule 
the  world.  The  heaped-up  gold  of  cap- 
italistic greed  must  melt  away  in  the  fires 
of  holy  love  and  sacrificial  service  until 
poverty  shall  pass  away.  The  rich  must 
empty  their  purses  if  the  hungry  are  to 
be  filled  with  good  things.  Room,  room  in 
the  seats  of  the  noble  for  the  sons  of  the 
lowly!  for  by  the  manger  birth  the  poor 
man  has  become  a  king. 
44 


THE  MAGNIFICAT 

*'Now  Christ  is  Lord  of  heaven  and  hell. 
And  all  the  words  of  Christ  are  true. 
He  touched  the  cottage  and  it  grew. 
He  touched  the  palace  and  it  fell. 

**But  the  sun  streams  in  at  the  cottage  door 
That  stands  where  once  the  palace  stood. 
And  the  workman,  toiling  to  earn  his  food. 
Was  never  a  king  before."^ 

Slaves  have  often  been  sweet  singers — 
but  there  has  always  been  a  minor  note 
of  melancholy  in  their  minstrelsy.  Democ- 
racy and  freedom  have  always  been  the 
real  environment  of  music.  Christ  is  the 
chorister  who  leads  the  anthem  of  free- 
dom. He  it  is  who  comes  to  proclaim 
"liberty  to  the  captive  and  the  opening 
of  the  prison  to  them  that  are  bound." 
In  all  human  history  the  pilgrims  toward 
the  lands  of  liberty  have  burst  forth  into 
song  at  the  moment  of  deliverance.  The 
Israelites  leaving  behind  them  the  sub- 
merged army  of  despotism  face  the  wilder- 
ness of  their  freedom  with  the  Song  of 
Moses: 

"Sound  the  loud  timbrel  over  Egypt's  dark  sea. 
Jehovah  hath  conquered,  his  people  are  free!" 


^  Mary  Elizabeth  Coleridge. 

45 


THE  CHRISTMAS  CANTICLES 

And  our  Pilgrim  Fathers  as  their  feet 
touched  the  wild  wilderness  of  the  New 
World  did  it  with  "hymns  of  lofty  cheer." 

"Amid  the  storms  they  sang. 

And  the  stars  heard  and  the  sea; 
And  the  somiding  aisles  of  the  dim  woods  rang 
With  the  anthem  of  the  free!" 

We    have    called    the    Magnificat    the 

madrigal  of  Mary.     Really,  it  might  be 

called    her    galliard.      "My    spirit    doth 

rejoice  in  God  my  Saviour."     The  Greek 

word    for    "rejoice,"    Tj-yaXMaae,    may    be 

the   root   of   that   gay   dance  called   the 

galliard.      Her    ancestor,    David,    danced 

before  the  ark  of  Jehovah.    And  now  her 

inward  spirit  bounds  in  joy  before  that 

inward  presence  in  her  heart  and  life,  "my 

Saviour."     Saviour!  did  she  sing  her  song 

in  the  vernacular  tongue  of  Palestine,  the 

Aramaic?      If    so,   she   spoke  that   word 

which   the   angel   had   given   her   as   the 

name  of  the  coming  child.    We  may  not 

find  Christ  in  her  song;  there  is  a  silence 

of   the   winged   cherub   so  near   the   ark 

that  it  may  not  speak.    But  Christ  is  in 

the  song  for  all  that.     That  minor  strain 

of  dissonance  which  jarred  the  music  of 
46 


THE  MAGNIFICAT 

her  mind  in  Nazareth  as  she  faced  the 
shame  of  a  virgin  birth  has  now  been 
resolved  into  a  great  major  chord  of 
holy  rapture  sung  by  the  choir  of  her  soul 
as  thought,  feeling  and  will  leap  and  sing 
before  the  promised  presence  of  the  in- 
carnate God.  When  Jesus  comes  into  the 
heart  a  new  song  begins. 


47 


IV 

THE  SILENCED  PRIEST— THE 
SECOND  SINGER 

ALL  that  was  best  in  Judaism  was 
the  heritage  of  the  Messiah  and 
of  his  forerunner,  the  Baptist.  Holy 
and  happy  homes  were  those  in  Nazareth 
and  Hebron  where  Jesus  and  John  spent 
their  childhood.  The  royal  lineage  of 
David  and  the  sacerdotal  succession  of 
Aaron  were  worthily  represented  in  the 
blameless  and  unsullied  lives  of  Joseph 
and  Mary  and  of  Zacharias  and  Elisabeth. 
The  latter  are  pictured  by  Saint  Luke 
as  indeed  a  model  pair;  they  were  one  in 
love  and  in  the  Lord.  Their  constant 
employment  in  sacred  tasks  had  not  made 
them  irreverent;  the  sanctity  of  religious 
service  was  not  staled  to  them  by  its 
commonness.  Yet  one  grief  clouded  the 
gladness  of  this  priestly  household.  Back- 
ward they  can  trace  their  Levitical  ped- 
igree to  Aaron,  but  Providence  has  given 
48 


THE  MUTE  PRIEST  AND  HIS  SONG 

them  no  forward  look;  the  reproach  of 
childlessness,  so  abhorrent  to  the  Hebrew 
heart,  is  upon  the  pious  pair.  It  is 
always  a  calamity  when  the  homes  best 
fitted  for  the  right  nurtm-e  of  childhood 
furnish  neither  citizens  to  the  state  nor 
members  to  the  church. 

We  cannot  doubt  that  this  private  and 
personal  longing  lent  some  coloring  to 
the  public  ministry  of  Zacharias.  When 
his  turn  comes  to  serve  in  the  Holy  Place, 
kindling  the  altar  fires,  trimming  the 
sacred  lamps,  and  swinging  the  smoking 
censer  before  the  curtains  of  the  Unseen 
Holy,  his  hungry  longing  burned  with 
the  flames,  and  his  passionate  desire 
mingled  with  the  fragrance  that  went 
up  to  God. 

A  minister  is  the  more  qualified  for 
his  ministrj^  by  the  sympathy  with  hu- 
man need  born  of  his  own  sorrow.  Out- 
side the  people  are  praying  and  watching 
for  the  rising  vapor  cloud  which  shall 
float  heavenward  with  their  petitions; 
within  the  aged  priest  is  wafting  the 
odorous  offering,  made  more  fragrant  by 
the  perfume  of  his  bruised  spirit.     And 

49 


THE  CHRISTMAS  CANTICLES 

so  this  day,  God,  by  his  angel,  broke  the 
silence  of  centuries  with,  "Fear  not, 
Zacharias,  thy  prayer  is  answered." 

We  are  acquainted  with  the  names 
of  but  two  of  the  great  angels  of  the 
Presence,  Michael,  the  messenger  of  judg- 
ment, and  Gabriel,  the  angel  of  promise. 
Yet  why  should  our  modern  Sadduceeism, 
so  credulous  of  the  scientific  marvels 
wrought  by  "impersonal  force"  (is  there 
such  a  thing  .^)  lose  the  glory  and  blessing 
of  the  lesser  wonder  of  our  personal  allies 
in  the  unseen  realm?  They  still  fill  the 
air  with  their  radiant  beauty;  they  still 
help  us  with  their  holy  ministries.  Those 
that  are  "heirs  of  salvation"  are  still 
honored  with  seraphic  service.  Especially 
when  we  are  doing  God's  business,  as 
was  this  good  priest  in  the  Temple, 
attending  to  the  sacred  routine  of  wor- 
ship, do  we  draw  near  the  veil  of  mystery 
that  hides  the  unseen  world,  and  forth 
from  the  thick  darkness  of  the  Holiest 
shall  come  the  big,  bright  messengers  of 
grace.  The  carved  twin  cherubim  that 
bend  above  the  Mercy-Seat,  trying  to 
guess  the  secret  of  the  sprinkled  blood, 
50 


THE  MUTE  PRIEST  AND  HIS  SONG 

are  but  earthly  pictures  of  the  holy  host 
that  help  in  all  true  human  worship. 
When  we  sing  at  the  holy  communion, 
"Therefore  with  angels  and  archangels  and 
all  the  company  of  heaven,"  surely  our 
hearts  feel  that  all  the  heavenly  stairways 
are  filled  with  shining  ones  bearing  peti- 
tions up  and  bringing  blessings  down. 
If  we  could  hear  and  see  them,  it  is  a 
marvelous  tale  they  would  tell,  that  our 
lives  with  their  plans  and  purposes  are 
known  and  regarded  in  heaven  and  that 
strong  seraphs  are  given  the  care  of  our 
dearest  interests.  There  is  some  sym- 
bolic truth  in  such  a  lovely  legend  as 
that  of  Sandalphon,  the  Angel  of  Prayer, 
of  whom  Longfellow  sings: 

**And  he  holdeth  our  prayers  as  he  stands. 
And  they  turn  into  flowers  in  his  hands. 

Into  garlands  of  purple  and  red; 
And  in  through  the  gates  of  the  portal. 
Through  the  streets  of  the  city  Immortal, 

Is  wafted  the  perfume  they  shed." 

Do  not  marvel  that  the  pious  priest 
was  astounded  at  the  acceptance  of  the 
prayer  of  years.  We  are  all  like  that, 
and  sight  would  be  more  terrible  to  most 

51 


THE  CHRISTMAS  CANTICLES 

of  us  than  faith.  What  amazement  would 
come  to  many  Christian  congregations  if 
their  bold  petitions  were  suddenly 
answered!  It  is  not  surprising  that  his 
fearful  heart  and  bewildered  reason  called 
for  a  confirmation  of  the  promise.  God 
graciously  gives  him  a  sign.  The  transient 
dumbness  imposed  as  a  penalty  for  his 
hesitant  faith  was  more  than  punish- 
ment; it  was  a  pledge  for  the  fulfillment 
of  the  promise.  Under  that  seal  of  silence 
in  the  hushed  chambers  of  his  spirit,  for- 
ever filled  with  the  music  of  the  messenger, 
he  is  beginning  to  shape  that  glorious 
anthem  which  shall  break  forth  from  his 
lips  when  the  budding  promise  breaks 
into  the  flower  of  fulfillment. 

The  promise  that  the  mute  priest  car- 
ries in  his  heart  is  the  climax  of  the  old 
covenant  and  the  beginning  of  the  new. 
The  expected  child  shall  close  the  priestly 
succession  of  Aaron  and  the  prophetic 
line  of  Elijah.  "He  shall  be  great,"  says 
Gabriel,  but,  as  we  read  the  record,  it 
is  a  strange  greatness,  a  greatness  of  the 
desert  wastes,  of  unworldly  sacrifice,  and 
of  bloody   martyrdom.     His  is  no  glory 

52 


THE  MUTE  PRIEST  AND  HIS  SONG 

like  that  of  Herod,  miscalled  "the  Great"; 
*'he  shall  be  great  in  the  sight  of  the  Lord, 
and  shall  be  filled  with  the  Holy  Spirit." 
Already  new  standards  of  worth  are 
coming  into  the  world,  which  the  manger 
cradle  shall  confirm  and  make  a  perma- 
nent possession. 

Out  from  the  Holy  Place  comes  the 
mute  priest  to  dismiss  the  congregation; 
only  by  gestures  can  he  convey  the 
Levitical  blessing.  But  though  the  hturgic 
benediction  is  hushed  upon  his  lips,  the 
Benedictus  begins  to  burn  within  his  soul. 


63 


THE  BENEDICTUS—TEE  HYMN 
OF  THE  GOSPEL  DAWN 

THE  Benedictus,  sung  by  Zacharias 
as  the  birth-song  of  his  son,  John 
the  Baptist,  was  the  hymn  of  the 
gospel  dawn.  As  in  the  myth  of  Memnon, 
the  stony  lips  of  the  Egyptian  deity  mur- 
mured a  strange,  sweet  melody  at  sun- 
rise, so,  when  the  rays  of  the  Sim  of 
Righteousness  touched  the  dead  lips  of 
earth,  they  broke  forth  into  music.  After 
nine  months  of  dumbness  and  suppression, 
the  song  which  has  been  shaping  itself  in 
the  hushed  temple  of  his  heart  breaks 
forth  like  some  pent-up  mountain  stream 
or  like  the  sudden  bursting  of  a  flower 
bud  with  a  "Bless  the  Lord!"  and  very 
soon  the  angels  will  respond  "Glory!" 

The  Benedictus  is  characteristically  a 
priestly  song.  As  the  Magnificat  has  a 
regal  note,  befitting  a  daughter  of  David's 

race,  there  is  a  sacerdotal  strain  in  the 
54 


THE  BENEDICTUS 

Benedidus,  as  is  natural  to  a  son  of  Aaron. 
It  is  set,  however,  to  the  key  of  a  higher 
ritualism  already  instinctively  foreshad- 
owed by  a  seer  of  the  ancient  days  as  he 
sang,  "0  worship  the  Lord  in  the  beauty 
of  holiness."  That  gleam  of  the  white 
raiment  of  a  universal  priesthood  which 
had  thus  dawned  in  the  days  of  old,  now 
brightens  into  a  loftier  liturgy,  as  all  life 
becomes  worship,  as  a  redeemed  human- 
ity shall  "serve  him  without  fear  in 
holiness  and  righteousness  before  him  all 
our  days." 

The  Benedictus  is  also  a  family  hymn. 
Probably  if  we  had  this  Canticle  in  the 
original  Aramaic,  which  was  the  native 
tongue  of  Zacharias,  we  should  find  the 
whole  family  of  the  forerunner  lending 
their  names  to  strike  the  chords  of 
promise.  Zacharias  means  "the  memory 
of  Jehovah";  John  (Hananiah),  "the  mercy 
of  Jehovah";  and  Elisabeth,  "the  oath 
of  God."  The  whole  hymn  condensed 
into  a  single  sentence  is  this:  God  has 
remembered  his  oath  of  mercy.  Blessed 
home   at   Hebron   where   the   first   three 

Canticles  of   the  incarnation   were   sung 
55 


THE  CHRISTMAS  CANTICLES 

and  where  the  very  names  sum  up  the 
great  messages  of  Israel  to  the  world  and 
its  subhme  promise  for  the  future. 

The  Benedictus  is  a  father's  hymn.  Not 
only  the  priest  but  the  father  speaks. 
His  paternal  pride  sees  in  his  infant  son 
one  who  shall  be  more  than  a  mechan- 
ical priest,  who  shall  rise  to  the  higher 
dynamic  function  of  the  prophet.  "And 
thou,  child,  shalt  be  called  the  prophet 
of  the  Most  High."  If  the  proud  father 
sings  about  his  child,  it  is  because  that 
son  is  to  be  the  avant-courier,  the  harbinger 
of  the  dawn,  the  morning  star  that  runs 
before  the  rising  sim  and  is  soon  lost  in 
his  rays.  As  in  an  ocean  voyage,  we  at 
last  breathe  the  fragrance  of  a  nearing 
shore,  the  bud  of  historic  hope  shall  soon 
bluest  into  the  blossom  of  fulfillment. 
Although  Zacharias  is  a  priest,  in  this 
song  he  is  inspired  by  a  prophetic  note. 
As  the  Magnificat  of  Mary  echoes  the 
psalmody  of  the  Old  Testament,  the 
Benedictus  of  Zacharias  echoes  the  pro- 
phetic sermons.  In  him  the  voice  of 
Israel's  hope  again  awakes,  and  it  shall 
sound  its  last  great  call  to  righteousness 

56 


THE  BENEDICTUS 

in  the  preaching  of  the  boy  whose  birth 
it  celebrates  when  his  voice  shall  be 
heard  crying  in  the  wilderness,  "Prepare 
ye  the  way  of  the  Lord."  He  shall  stand 
on  the  margin  of  the  golden  gospel  sum- 
mer to  which  prophecy  is  the  spring. 

But  the  supreme  strains  of  the  song 
are  about  God.  The  Virgin's  song  circles 
about  the  throne,  and  magnifies  the 
mighty  and  merciful  King  in  his  righteous 
sovereignty;  but  the  priest's  song  brings 
God  down  to  earth,  the  God  of  salvation. 

The  Benedidus  adumbrates  the  God  of 
redemption.  Heaven  stoops  to  earth;  God 
visits  man.  It  is  not  we  who  have  climbed 
the  skies  and  conquered  heaven;  it  is 
God  who  knocks  at  our  doors,  bringing 
the  gifts  of  his  grace  and  the  pledges  of 
his  immortal  friendship.  "He  hath  visited 
and  redeemed  his  people."  Redeemed!  it 
means  the  slave  set  free,  the  exile  restored 
to  citizenship,  the  convict  pardoned,  the 
bankrupt  released,  the  ransom  paid. 
Zacharias  did  not  see  the  cross,  but  in 
that  word  "redeemed"  he  dimly  fore- 
shadows its  glory  and  its  gloom.  God 
visits  earth,  but  he  does  not  come  empty- 

57 


THE  CHRISTMAS  CANTICLES 

handed;  he  brings  the  price  of  souls  in 
hands  that  are  pierced  on  the  way. 

Zacharias  sings  the  faithfidness  of  God, 
which  he  himself  had  doubted  as  too  good 
to  be  true.  Israel  is  above  all  the  nation 
of  the  covenant;  it  boldly  dared  to  con- 
ceive God  as  placing  himself  under  bonds 
to  his  own.  The  rainbow  after  the  flood, 
pledge  of  the  permanence  of  natural  law, 
the  rite  of  circumcision,  the  words  of 
Sinai — these  were  some  of  the  seals  on 
the  great  contract  that  pledged  the  Eter- 
nal God  to  the  service  of  humanity.  And 
it  was  more  than  a  contract  for  service; 
it  was  a  bond  of  friendship,  a  seal  of 
fellowship.  The  God  of  the  Bible  is  the 
God  of  the  Amen,  the  God  of  the  oath, 
the  God  of  promise.  Will  he  keep  faith? 
There  are  times  when  faith  is  hard,  when 
our  blind  eyes  do  not  discern  him  work- 
ing in  the  affairs  of  men. 

"But  right  is  right,  since  God  is  God, 
And  right  the  day  must  win; 
To  doubt  would  be  disloyalty. 
To  falter  would  be  sin."^ 

If  he  is  unfaithful,  he  loses  more  than 

1  Frederick  William  Faber. 

58 


THE  BENEDICTUS 

we;  he  loses  his  character  of  truth,  a 
possession  worth  more  than  all  his  worlds. 
The  character  of  God  is  the  highest  pledge 
of  stability  in  the  universe.  There  is  an 
old  story  that  in  the  tent  of  Charles  V 
a  bird  had  built  her  nest,  and  when  his 
army  moved  forward  the  emperor  for- 
bade its  being  disturbed  until  it  had 
brooded  its  young.  So  has  our  God  given 
his  word  that  "heaven  and  earth  shall 
pass  away,  but  my  word  shall  not  pass 
away."  He  is  the  Lord  of  Hosts,  and 
may  command  his  armies  of  stars  to  march 
on,  but  love  may  safely  brood  its  young 
in  the  eaves  of  his  tabernacle. 

The  Benedictus  is  the  matin  song  of 
the  coming  day.  Its  closing  strophe  is  a 
beautiful  picture  of  a  caravan  lost  in  the 
darkness  of  the  desert,  to  whom  the 
breaking  dawn  discloses  the  path:  "The 
dayspring  from  on  high  hath  visited  us, 
to  give  light  to  them  that  sit  in  darkness 
and  the  shadow  of  death,  to  guide  our 
feet  into  the  way  of  peace." 

The  glory  of  the  ancient  world  was  the 
glory  of  night  with  its  splendor  of  stars 
and  the  changing  radiance  of  the  moon, 

59 


THE  CHRISTMAS  CANTICLES 

full  of  false  and  artificial  lights  and 
deceitful  will-o'-the  wisps.  Now  the  world 
lies  in  the  twilight  of  a  new  day,  the 
gray  of  dawning  is  awaiting  the  glory  of 
God,  and  the  pilgrims  of  the  night  turn 
eager  faces  toward  the  East. 


60 


VI 

THE  DAYSPRING  FROM  ON  HIGH 

THE  Benedictus  ends  with  that 
picture  of  a  caravan  in  the  desert. 
We  can  imagine  it  wrapped  in 
the  gloom  of  midnight,  the  wild  beasts 
howling  about  the  travelers,  the  waste 
winds  wailing,  and  the  road  lost.  They 
cannot  go  on,  but,  sitting,  wait  for  the 
day.  At  last  dawn  breaks  on  the  desert 
and  reveals  the  path.  This  is  the  last 
word  of  the  prophecy  of  the  old  dis- 
pensation. It  takes  up  the  old-time 
message  of  hope;  it  is  the  cry  of  the 
watchman — "The  morning  cometh!"  In 
the  Benedictus  the  Old  Testament  and  the 
New  meet,  prophecy  is  passing  into  ful- 
fillment. "The  night  is  far  spent,  and 
the  day  is  at  hand." 

Night  is  a  true  picture  of  the  world 
without  Christ.  Its  darkness  is  a  symbol 
of  doubt  and  despair.  Like  those  chil- 
dren who  formerly  were  born  and  brought 
up  in  the  mines,  and  never  saw  the  sun 
61 


THE  CHRISTMAS  CANTICLES 

or  plucked  a  flower,  are  the  wanderers  in 
pre-Christian  deserts.  Like  those  chil- 
dren, they  may  have  been  told  about  the 
sun — that  it  looks  like  a  safety -lamp;  but 
what  do  they  know  of  the  glory  and 
beauty  of  the  star  of  day? 

Night  is  filled  not  only  with  gloom  but 
with  terror.  It  is  entirely  natural  to  be 
afraid  in  the  dark.  Night  is  the  time 
of  mists  that  shroud  and  miasma  that 
poisons;  in  it  foul  things  come  out,  ghostly 
bats  cleave  the  air,  and  ill-omened  owls 
hoot  in  the  darkness;  then  savage  beasts 
prowl  from  their  lairs  and  unclean  hyenas 
skulk  among  the  tombs;  then  walk  forth 
the  pestilence  and  all  the  most  horrid 
forms  of  vice;  then  bestiahty  reels  through 
the  streets;  then  is  heard  the  infant's 
wail,  and  wives  and  mothers  timorously 
listen  for  the  coming  of  unsteady  steps; 
then  from  upper  chambers  come  the 
rattle  of  dice  and  the  silly  laughter  of 
the  debauchee;  it  is  then  that  wicked 
conspiracies  are  hatched  and  cruel  re- 
venges are  plotted.  Night  is  the  harvest 
time  of  ignorance  and  sin,  of  disease  and 
death.    Night  robs  the  world  of  its  beauty; 

62 


THE  DAYSPRING  FROM  ON  HIGH 

the  brightest  sky  becomes  leaden,  the 
greenest  landscape  is  a  waste,  the  rose 
is  bereft  of  its  redness,  and  its  lovehness 
is  lost  to  the  lily. 

Such  was  the  moral  darkness  of  the 
world  before  the  Advent.  "Darkness 
covered  the  earth,  and  gross  darkness  the 
people."  Never  was  the  world's  gloom 
denser.  Rome  was  filled  with  religious 
experiments;  Greece  had  more  gods  than 
men,  and  in  despair  had  named  an  altar 
to  the  UnknowTi  God.  Nature  had  no 
answers  to  the  passionate  questionings  of 
man  as  to  God  and  immortality.  Life 
was  anguish  and  death  was  terror.  The 
wheels  of  life  stood  still;  the  way  was 
lost  in  the  dark;  there  was  nothing  to  do 
but  to  sit  down  and  wait  for  the  dawn 
of  the  day.  It  is  even  so  now  in  indi- 
vidual life  before  He  comes.  Many  a  soul 
is  blind  in  the  very  land  of  sunshine, 
like  Milton's  Samson. 

*'0  dark,  dark,  dark,  amid  the  blaze  of  noon. 
Irrecoverably  dark,  total  eclipse, 
And  with  no  hope  of  day." 

Who  has  not  longed  for  the  day.^  "My 
soul  waiteth  for  God  more  than  they  that 

63 


THE  CHRISTMAS  CANTICLES 

watch  for  the  morning."  The  sailor 
chnging  to  the  shrouds  through  the  driving 
storm,  the  soldier  lying  wounded  on  the 
battlefield,  the  lonely  night  watcher  beside 
the  sick  bed,  the  fevered  patient  himself 
tossing  with  restlessness,  the  benighted 
wanderer  in  the  forest  or  on  the  lonely 
moor — how  often  they  cry — "Would  God 
it  were  morning!"  Imagination  peoples 
the  obscurity  with  forms  of  terror.  Did 
you  ever  suffer  from  insomnia  .^^  Then  you 
have  learned  that  "truly  the  light  is 
sweet,  and  it  is  a  pleasant  thing  for  the 
eyes  to  behold  the  sun." 

The  world's  night  is  not  wholly  dark. 
It  has  stars  in  it  and  long  reaches  of 
silver  moonlight.  It  is  often  filled  with 
strange  dreams  of  beauty  and  its  night- 
ingales fill  the  dark  hours  with  song, 
"smoothing  the  raven  wing  of  darkness 
till  it  smiled."  There  was  a  pre-Christian 
revelation.  Its  stars  came  out  one  by 
one,  until  the  whole  sky  was  spangled 
with  oracles  proclaiming  the  advancing 
splendor  of  a  coming  dawTi.  The  whole 
note  of  the  ancient  world  is  longing,  with 

here  and  there  a  gleam  of  light. 
64 


THE  DAYSPRING  FROM  ON  HIGH 

Spurgeon  somewhere  in  a  sermon  pic- 
tures a  family  at  Christmas  time,  expect- 
ing an  elder  brother  who  is  absent  to 
arrive  by  a  midnight  train.  The  other 
children  beg  to  be  allowed  to  sit  up  to 
meet  him.  "No,"  the  father  answers, 
"you  shall  see  him  in  the  morning."  So 
the  prophets  longed  to  see  our  Elder 
Brother,  Jesus,  but  were  compelled,  one 
by  one,  to  He  down  in  the  cold  bed  of 
death.  David  cried,  "Let  me  see  this 
son  of  mine  who  is  greater  than  Solomon." 
Job  implored,  "Let  me  look  upon  the  face 
of  my  Living  Redeemer."  Malachi  be- 
seeches, "Father,  I  am  the  last  one  up, 
let  me  wait  and  behold  the  Sun  of  Right- 
eousness." And  then  two  aged  saints  in 
the  Temple  say,  "We  have  studied  the 
time-tables;  the  train  is  almost  in;  let  us 
behold  the  Consolation  of  Israel."  And 
the  Father  granted  their  request,  and 
Simeon  cried:  "Let  now  thy  servant  de- 
part in  peace." 

The  Benedicfus  discloses  the  source  of 

light — "the   mercy   of   the   heart   of   our 

Lord."    The  common  day  spring  blushes  in 

the    east,    pillowing    its    chin    upon    the 
65 


THE  CHRISTMAS  CANTICLES 

Orient  wave.  God's  dawn  breaks  out  of 
his  heart.  "God  is  Hght" — this  is  the 
message  of  the  gospel — "in  him  is  no 
darkness  at  all."  What  wonder  that  the 
highest  form  of  heathenism  is  sun-worship.'^ 
The  ancient  Thraeians  had  a  strange  sym- 
bol— a  sun  with  three  rays — one  falling 
on  ice  and  melting  it,  one  on  rock  and 
fusing  it,  and  one  on  a  dead  man,  bring- 
ing him  back  to  life.  All  earthly  light  has 
been  kindled  from  his  heart,  and  his 
city  "hath  no  need  of  the  sun." 

Light  is  therefore  the  child  of  love. 
Salvation  is  born  out  of  the  heart  of 
God;  it  comes  from  the  inmost  of  his 
being.  His  wisdom  may  direct  it,  his 
power  perform  it,  but  in  his  heart  it  was 
born.  Love  is  not  blind;  it  has  the  clear- 
est of  all  vision.  How  heartily  God  loves! 
The  first  word  of  creation  came  out  of 
God's  very  heart,  "Let  there  be  light." 
He  has  not  stopped  saying  it,  and  will 
not  until  all  chaos  is  conquered  and  all 
darkness  dispelled. 

So  light  is  the  gentlest  of  forces,  yet  the 
mightiest.  It  falls  so  gently  that  it  does 
not  crush  the  petals  of  a  rose  nor  hurt 

66 


THE  DAYSPRING  FROM  ON  HIGH 

the  eyelids  of  a  sleeping  babe,  yet  it 
builds  the  forest  and  commands  the  tides. 
Not  alone  in  the  thundering  pomp  of  fiery 
law  is  God  revealed  but  in  the  tender 
mercy  of  the  gospel  dawn. 

"The  people  that  si't  in  darkness  have 
seen  a  great  light."  In  the  Genesis  poem 
of  creation,  when  the  world  was  four  days 
old,  God  centrahzed  the  primeval  light 
into  the  sun,  moon,  and  stars.  So,  when 
the  Adamic  race  had  passed  four  thousand 
years,  he  took  the  light  of  patriarch  and 
prophet,  of  saint  and  sage,  and  poured 
its  full  radiance  into  the  life  of  Jesus  of 
Nazareth,  who  proclaims,  "I  am  the  light 
of  the  world." 

Sunshine  is  a  daily  victory.  City- 
dwellers  rarely  see  the  sunrise,  unless  they 
belong  to  the  tin-pail  brigade.  The  day 
begins  its  work  before  most  of  us.  The 
gray  grows  to  gold,  the  mountains  first 
surrender,  kindled  with  the  altar  fires  of 
morning  worship,  and  then  the  widening 
splendor  at  last  wraps  the  whole  world 
with  robes  of  light.  Our  Lord,  the  Sun  of 
Righteousness,  is,  like  the  day,  the  true 
revealer.    It  is  the  sun  that  makes  a  dial 

67 


THE  CHRISTMAS  CANTICLES 

show  the  time  of  day.  You  cannot  inter- 
pret a  dial  by  the  gleam  of  stars  or  moon, 
or  by  gas  or  the  electric  blaze.  So  it  is 
Jesus,  and  not  philosophers  or  sages,  that 
can  interpret  life.  Not  all  at  once — we 
have  a  great  Christ  whose  glory  grows 
with  the  ages;  the  Christ  of  to-day  is 
larger  in  the  world's  vision  than  the  dawn 
that  broke  on  the  prophet's  vision  or  the 
shepherd's  eyes.  He  is  the  only  source 
of  perfect  light. 

"The  night  has  a  thousand  eyes 
And  the  day  but  one; 
Yet  the  light  of  the  bright  world  dies 
With  the  dying  sun. 

**The  mind  has  a  thousand  eyes. 
The  heart  but  one; 
Yet  the  light  of  a  whole  life  dies 
When  Love  is  done."* 

Day  brings  joy.  The  Hyperborean 
watchers  of  Arctic  climes  dress  themselves 
in  festal  garments  and  climb  the  hills  to 
greet  the  returning  light,  crying,  "Behold 
the  sun!"  So  does  the  world  feel  the 
approaching  joy  of  the  Christmastide.  The 
night  of  sin  and  sorrow  is  past.     Thus 

» F.  W.  BoxirdUlon. 

68 


THE  DAYSPRING  FROM  ON  HIGH 

the  morning  is  God's  daily  preacher  of 
hope.  The  herald  angel  proclaimed:  "Be- 
hold, I  bring  you  good  tidings  of  great  joy." 
"Light  is  sown  for  the  righteous,  and 
gladness  for  the  upright  in  heart." 

Still  the  Benedictus  sings  its  blessed 
music  of  a  holy  hope  to  those  who  dwell 
in  darkness  and  the  shadow  of  death. 
"Arise,  shine,  for  thy  light  has  come,  and 
the  glory  of  the  Lord  is  risen  upon  thee." 
Saint  Paul  afterward  sang  a  httle  morn- 
ing hymn  to  arouse  dead  souls: 

"Awake,  thou  that  slecpest. 
Arise  from  thy  deadness. 
And  Christ  shall  shine  on  thee." 


69 


vn 

THE  ANGEL'S  SERMON  BEFORE 
THE  ANGELIC  ANTHEM 

O  LITTLE  town  of  Bethlehem!  It 
was  indeed  a  little  town,  "least 
among  the  thousands  of  Israel," 
but  it  was  one  of  the  most  ancient  and 
illustrious  villages  in  Palestine.  It  is 
crowded  with  many  noble  memories.  Near 
it  stands  what  is  affirmed  to  be  the  tomb 
of  Rachel,  the  fair  mother  of  Joseph  and 
Benjamin.  Here  in  these  fertile  fields 
about  it,  many  centuries  before,  Ruth,  the 
Moabite  maiden,  gleaned  Hberal  hand- 
fuls  of  golden  grain  left  by  the  reapers  of 
Boaz.  And  here,  a  millennium  before,  the 
ruddy  grandson  of  Ruth,  David,  had 
kept  his  father's  sheep,  protecting  them 
from  the  woK,  the  lion,  and  the  bear. 

Wheat  fields  and  pastures!  The  word 
"Bethlehem"  means  the  "House  of  Bread," 
and  here  at  last  the  Bread  of  Life  comes 
down  from  heaven.  Near  it  was  the 
Tower  of  the  Flock  where  were  kept  the 
70 


THE  SERMON  BEFORE  THE  SONG 

sheep  destined  for  the  Temple  offerings  at 
Jerusalem,  and  here  is  born  the  Lamb  of 
God  who  at  the  Sacred  City  shall  be 
sacrificed  "for  the  sin  of  the  world." 
Luke  speaks  of  it  as  the  "City  of  David"; 
but  that  name  is  also  given  to  Jerusalem, 
six  miles  away.  He  was  not  born  in  that 
great  city,  but  in  the  little  town;  not  in 
a  palace  on  Mount  Zion,  but  in  the  lowly 
manger  of  that  caravansary  at  Bethlehem, 
which  was  probably  the  ancient  inn  of 
Chimham,  son  of  Barzillai,  the  servant  of 
David.  The  little  Bethlehem  becomes  the 
birthplace  of  joy  and  Jerusalem  the  scene 
of  tragedy. 

*'Sing  Bethlehem!     Sing  Bethlehem! 
Ye  daughters  of  Jerusalem; 
Keep  sorrow  for  Gethsemane 
And  mourning  for  Mount  Calvary.' 

"He  came  unto  his  own,  and  his  own 
received  him  not."  The  citizens  of  his 
own  town  disown  him;  "there  was  no 
room  for  him  at  the  inn."  The  heavenly 
sermon  and  song  came  not  to  the  town- 
dwellers,  but  to  shepherds  who  kept  the 
flocks  in  the  fields  near-by.     They  were 

1  Lionel  Johnson. 


THE  CHRISTMAS  CANTICLES 

in  the  place  of  duty.  Idle  souls  do  not 
see  visions.  These  pastoral  folk  were  not 
even  playing  harps  at  a  sacred  concert 
or  painting  pottery  for  a  synagogue  fair; 
God  sent  his  concert  to  them  at  their 
work.  To  them  came  the  heavenly  glory, 
an  angelic  preacher,  and  a  heavenly 
chorus. 

We  do  not  know  the  name  of  this 
seraphic  sermonizer.  It  may  have  been 
Gabriel,  the  messenger  that  brought  the 
glad  promise  to  Zacharias  and  Mary.  Or, 
as  it  was  a  "multitude  of  heavenly  sol- 
diers" who  sang  the  anthem  after  the 
sermon,  it  may  have  been  Michael,  the 
generalissimo  of  the  armies  of  the  skies 
who  came  at  their  head  to  pronounce  the 
recitative  that  preceded  their  chorus.  He 
is  simply  described  as  the  "angel  of  the 
Lord." 

This  angelical  message  is  evangelical — it 
is  a  proclamation  of  good  news.  For  joy 
is  not  the  sole  note  of  celestial  messages. 
They  have  come  again  and  again  with 
tearful  tidings,  with  denunciations  of 
doom,  and  they  sound  the  terrible  trum- 
pets of  judgment.     But  no  minor  modula- 

72 


THE  SERMON  BEFORE  THE  SONG 

tions  mar  this  message.  It  proclaims  joy 
to  the  shepherds — a  joy  that  widens  into 
joy  to  the  world.  Shepherds  do  rejoice 
when  a  lamb  is  born,  and  the  whole  world 
should  sing  Jubilates  when  they  "behold 
the  Lamb  of  God  that  taketh  away  the 
sin  of  the  world." 

Does  blinding  glory  bring  terror?  Out 
of  the  dazzling  radiance  the  seraphic 
preacher  speaks  his  exordium,  "Fear  not!" 
This  was  the  prelude  to  every  Advent 
message.  Fear  not!  Zacharias,  thou  trem- 
bling priest  in  the  temple.  Fear  not !  Holy 
Virgin  in  thy  humble  home.  Fear  not! 
lowly  shepherds  guarding  your  flocks  in 
the  chill  winter  night.  All  fear  is  turned 
into  joy  by  the  Advent  of  our  Lord.  All 
royal  birthdays  are  festal  days,  and  this 
birthday  brings  joy  from  the  land  of 
joy,  joy  from  the  joyful  heart  of  a  happy 
God. 

The  sermon  announces  a  Saviour,  and 
that  is  what  a  lost  world  needs.  Soter, 
Christos,  Kurios — "Saviour,  Christ,  Lord." 
Saviour!  as  the  angel  doubtless  spoke  in 
Aramaic,  the  current  speech  of  Judaea, 
which  the  shepherds  could  understand,  the 

73 


THE  CHRISTMAS  CANTICLES 

word  which  he  used  would  be  Jesus,  the 
personal  name  of  the  newborn  infant. 
Christ!  the  delivering  King  of  Hebrew 
hope,  the  Anointed  One  who  shall  become 
King  of  kings  and  Lord  of  lords.  Lord! 
the  substitute  name  given  Jehovah,  the 
God  of  the  Old  Testament,  whose  sacred 
name  it  was  irreverent  to  pronounce. 
And  so  this  angelic  sermon  is  doctrinal — 
its  divinity  including  both  Christology  and 
soteriology. 

The  sermon  discloses  a  sign.  The 
divine  Messiah  of  his  doctrine  is  revealed 
in  a  helpless  babe.  The  incarnation  is  a 
veiling  of  the  Divine.  It  is  an  infant 
that  they  will  find.  "Infant"  is  a  strange 
term,  derived  from  the  Latin  infans, 
meaning  "speechless."  The  Eternal  Word 
appears  without  a  word!  He  silently 
steals  into  the  life  of  humanity.  Yet  the 
sign  is  seen  not  merely  in  the  baby  form 
but  in  his  surroundings.  Where  shall  the 
shepherds  seek  and  find  him?  Not  in  a 
palace  but  a  stable,  not  in  a  royal  man- 
sion but  a  village  barn,  not  in  a  silk- 
lined  cradle  but  a  straw-lined  crib.  He 
shall  not  be  known  by  any  earthly  badge 
74 


THE  SERMON  BEFORE  THE  SONG 

of  glittering  gems,  shall  bear  no  heraldic 
crest,  shall  not  be  robed  in  a  purple  mantle 
of  princely  pomp,  shall  lie  in  no  cradle 
of  ivory.  God's  sign  of  greatness  goes 
past  these  marks  of  rank,  and  chooses  the 
peasant  garb.  He  becomes  one  of  us. 
Swaddling  bands  still  bind  the  babies  of 
the  Orient.  They  were  used  everywhere 
in  Europe  until  Jean  Jacques  Rousseau,  in 
his  educational  novel  Emile,  condemned 
the  custom. 

What  does  it  all  mean — this  sign?  It 
means  what  the  Nicene  Creed  announces. 
He  was  made  man.  As  the  writer  of  the 
Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  says:  "Truly  not 
of  angels  doth  he  take  hold;  he  taketh 
hold  of  the  seed  of  Abraham."  And  the 
angel  preacher  and  the  angel  singers  did 
not  disdain  this  act,  that  he  assumed  not 
angelic  but  human  form.  "God  manifest 
in  the  flesh"  was  "seen  of  angels,"  and 
longing  to  penetrate  the  great  mystery  of 
godliness,  they  look  with  wonder  on  the 
scene.  He  is  not  one  of  them,  but  the 
seraphic  speaker  must  congratulate  the 
human  kinsmen  of  the  Christ — "Unto  you 
8L  child  is  born";  and  the  celestial  choir 

75 


THE  CHRISTMAS  CANTICLES 

make  majestic  melody  over  the  astound- 
ing revelation  of  God's  good  will  to  man. 

Perplexed  mortals  find  intellectual  diffi- 
culties in  the  doctrine  of  the  Deity  of 
Christ,  but  wondering  angels  stand  in 
rapturous  adoration  before  the  astound- 
ing fact  of  his  humanity.  Paganism  is 
full  of  apotheoses,  of  mortals  exalted  to 
deified  positions.  Christianity  alone  re- 
veals the  One  Eternal  God  humbling  him- 
self to  take  the  form  of  human  flesh.  The 
God  of  the  New  Testament  does  not  re- 
gard crowns,  thrones,  scepters,  starry 
splendors,  celestial  glorias  as  the  true 
signs  of  divine  value.  He  will  not  grasp 
them;  rather  does  he  empty  himself  of 
this  transcendent  glory  and  takes  the 
form  of  a  servant,  and  is  found  in  fashion 
as  a  man.  God's  sign  of  greatness  is  not 
the  skyey  portent  for  which  the  Jews 
sought;  it  is,  rather,  the  swaddling  clothes 
and  the  manger.  Not  by  bees  that  come 
bringing  honey  for  his  lips,  not  by  stran- 
gled serpents  about  his  cradle,  not  by  a 
shining  aura  about  him  as  Correggio  paints 
in  his  Holy  Night,  were  the  shepherds  to 
identify  him  as  Saviour,  Christ,  Lord! 
76 


THE  SERMON  BEFORE  THE  SONG 

Real  greatness  is  more  than  bigness.  God 
gives  his  measure  of  the  highest  values  by 
entering  the  world  through  a  stable  door 
and  leaving  it  by  a  grave.  Love,  which 
is  the  greatest  thing  in  the  world,  is  re- 
vealed at  its  highest  through  sacrifice. 
And  the  sacrifice  of  Jesus  begins  with  his 
birth.  As  Dorner  said,  "Love  is  the  power 
of  God  over  his  own  omnipotence." 

"This  shall  be  the  sign!"  Some  blazing 
meteor  may  reveal  the  newborn  King  to 
wealthy  Wise  Men  from  the  East,  but 
the  pledge  given  to  humble  shepherds  by 
the  angelic  preacher  is  a  peasant  babe 
wrapped  in  swaddling  bands  and  lying  in 
a  manger.  This  is  God's  "good  tidings 
of  great  joy"  to  all  the  common  folk  of 
earth. 


77 


VIII 
"GOOD  TIDINGS  OF  GREAT  JOY" 

ALL  was  silent  in  the  world  of  nature, 
and  all  was  indifferent  in  the  world 
of  man.  No  convulsion  of  nature 
or  history  marked  the  greatest  birth  of 
time.  But  heaven  was  all  astir  and  the 
armies  of  the  sky  cannot  contain  their 
joy.  Of  all  the  dwellers  on  earth  a  few 
humble  shepherds  alone  see  the  glory- 
light  and  are  permitted  to  join  in  the 
gladness  of  the  celestial  world.  It  was  on 
historic  ground  where  a  thousand  years 
before  David  had  kept  his  father's  sheep, 
and  near  the  tower  of  the  flock,  where 
were  kept  those  designed  for  the  Temple 
offerings,  that  the  Shekinah,  long  with- 
drawn from  Israel,  reappears.  It  had 
flashed  like  a  brand  of  fire  at  the  closed 
gates  of  Eden,  it  had  blazed  in  the  uncon- 
sumed  bush  before  the  astonished  gaze  of 
Moses,  it  had  glowed  through  the  gloom  of 
the  nights  in  the  desert  to  guide  the 
78 


"GOOD  TIDINGS  OF  GREAT  JOY" 

advancing  hosts  of  Israel,  it  had  flung  a 
luminous  cloud  between  the  cherubim 
above  the  ark  of  the  covenant,  it  had 
filled  the  Holiest  Place  in  the  Temple  of 
Solomon  with  its  dazzling  radiance;  but 
for  five  hundred  years  it  had  vanished, 
and  now  again  its  splendor  bursts  on  the 
plains  of  Bethlehem.  It  was  not  a  waste 
of  glory  to  brighten  the  sky  with  angels 
and  poiu*  down  from  the  steeps  of  the 
heavenly  Zion  cataracts  of  tumultuous 
song.  For  this  event,  so  unnoted  in  all 
secular  chronicle,  is  the  watershed  of 
human  history  from  which  the  streams  of 
time  flow  backward  toward  the  dark;  from 
whence  the  rivers  of  the  future  flow  for- 
ward to  swell  the  ocean  of  eternal  light. 

Fear  was  turned  into  joy  by  the  advent 
of  our  Lord.  To  Zacharias,  to  Mary,  to 
the  shepherds,  the  angel  brings  one  mes- 
sage, "Fear  not."  The  pagan  world  was 
joyless,  with  a  constant  undertone  of  sad- 
ness beneath  its  merriest  songs:  this  had 
come  to  its  climax  at  the  period  of  the 
coming  of  the  Christ.  The  experiments  of 
nature  and  of  philosophy  had  failed.  The 
politicians  of  Rome  and  the  philosophers 

79 


THE  CHRISTMAS  CANTICLES 

of  Greece  were  alike  impotent  to  answer 
human  need. 

"On  that  hard  pagan  world  disgust 
And  secret  loathing  fell; 
Deep  weariness  and  sated  lust 
Made  human  life  a  hell."^ 

Man  was  like  a  harp  unstrung,  giving  back 
to  every  touch  only  harsh  discords,  but 
the  greater  Son  of  the  great  harper,  David, 
came  to  restring  the  harp  of  human  life 
and  restore  its  lost  harmonies. 

Christianity  is  a  religion  of  joy.  It  was 
good  news  to  the  slave,  to  the  workman, 
to  the  child.  It  began  with  a  song  out  of 
the  sky  and  earth  soon  began  to  vibrate 
in  sympathy  with  the  angelic  music. 
Barbarism  with  its  cruelty  melts  away, 
chains  snap,  dungeons  crumble,  fetters  fall, 
tyrannies  topple.  It  would  be  a  mistake 
to  say  that  there  was  no  joy  in  the  world 
before  he  came;  there  were  the  beauty  of 
the  sky,  earth,  and  sea,  the  laughter  of 
little  children,  and  the  dear  dehghts  of 
love.  But  he  took  away  the  bitter  drop 
of   despair"  that  poisoned  these  cups    of 


1  Matthew  Arnold. 

80 


"GOOD  TIDINGS  OF  GREAT  JOY" 

rapture  and  added  the  new  ecstasy  bom 
of  his  own  heart  of  love. 

The  Advent  reveals  God  in  a  joy -giving 
way.  God  made  flesh — that  is  the  sov- 
ereign remedy  for  the  world's  fear.  There 
was  an  older  revelation  of  God;  it  was  on 
a  burning  mountain,  amid  pealing  thun- 
ders and  thrilling  trumpets,  and  in  an 
awful  voice  that  spoke  solemn  words  of 
law.  Even  Moses,  who  was  allowed  to 
enter  the  supernal  splendor,  said,  "I 
exceedingly  fear  and  quake."  But  Jesus 
reveals  the  Father;  that  name  was  perpet- 
ually upon  his  lips,  and  its  meanings  con- 
stantly unfolded  in  his  life.  When  he 
speaks  from  a  mountain  it  is  not  in  tones 
of  thunder  that  terrify,  but  to  say, 
"Blessed,  blessed,  blessed!" 

The  Advent  reveals  man  in  a  joy- 
giving  way.  We  do  not  judge  a  tree  by 
the  blighted  trunk  and  blasted  leaves,  but 
by  the  full  glory  of  foliage,  flower,  and 
fruit.  So  we  do  not  really  see  the  full 
possibilities  of  our  manhood  in  the  wreck- 
age wrought  by  sin,  but  in  the  face  of 
Jesus  Christ.    At  last  we  see  of  what  man 

is    capable    and    what    he    may    become. 
81 


THE  CHRISTMAS  CANTICLES 

Man  has  received  God;  he  has  intempled 
the  Infinite.  God  became  the  Son  of  man, 
that  man  might  become  the  child  of  God. 
What  wonder  that  the  redemption  song 
resumes  the  gladness  of  the  creation 
chorus,  for  it  consummates  creation.  The 
Babe  of  Bethlehem  discloses  the  full  im- 
port of  the  primitive  revelation,  that  man 
was  made  in  the  image  of  God. 

The  joy  of  the  Advent  is  unique,  for  it 
manifests  the  true  glory  of  God.  It  is  a 
strange  contrast,  the  scene  so  simple  and 
the  song  so  sublime.  Outside,  the  blazing 
Shekinah  and  the  burst  of  song — inside, 
the  lowly  manger  and  the  helpless  Babe. 
The  angels  know  better  than  we  what 
constitutes  true  greatness.  Man  finds 
glory  in  climbing  up,  but  God  in  coming 
down.  The  incarnation  is  the  riddle  of 
reason,  but  religion  finds  more  of  God 
in  the  Man  of  Sorrows  than  in  all  the 
splendor  of  opened  heavens.  Love  is 
more  royal  than  power;  sacrifice  is  more 
sovereign  than  wisdom.  He  came  to  us 
by  a  stable  door,  he  left  by  the  gateway 
of  a  grave.  This  is  the  true  glory  of  the 
incarnation,  the  true  "joy  to  the  world." 

82 


IX 

GLORIA  IN  EXCELSIS 

IN  the  operas  of  Richard  Wagner  one 
of  the  interesting  characteristics  is 
what  is  called  the  leit-motiv,  a  musical 
phrase  which  appears  again  and  again 
as  the  person  or  position  it  represents 
reappears  in  the  drama.  So  in  that 
divine  symphony  of  the  universe,  of 
which  God  is  author,  the  creative  motive, 
uttered  when  the  jubilant  shouting  of 
the  angels  of  God  joined  to  the  singing 
of  the  morning  stars,  is  again  heard  with 
fresh  variations,  as  the  first  creation 
passes  into  the  new  creation  and  nature 
blossoms  into  grace. 

One  can  hardly  understand  why  they 
had  been  silent  so  long — so  soon  was  that 
primeval  anthem  silenced  by  the  sad 
story  of  sin.  Then  comes  a  long  hour 
of  hushed  hallelujahs  and  a  strange  twi- 
light of  revelation.  But  now  the  fault 
of  the  first  Adam,  with  its  sad  heredity 

83 


THE  CHRISTMAS  CANTICLES 

of  evil,  is  met  by  the  birth  of  the  second 
Adam,  the  first  of  a  new  race  of  the  sons 
of  God,  and  the  angels  sing  again.  That 
ancient  chant  of  creation,  checked  by  the 
gleam  of  fiery  swords  barring  the  way  to 
a  lost  paradise,  becomes  the  incarnation 
hymn,  bursting  the  open  gates  of  paradise 
restored.  Heaven  and  earth  join  in  the 
great  oratorio.  That  strange  earthly 
quartet,  the  priest  and  his  wif Cj  the  Virgin 
Mother  and  the  aged  saint,  sing  their 
parts  while  above  them  from  the  sky 
galleries  comes  the  celestial  chorus. 

If  we  only  knew  the  score  of  that 
seraphic  song!  Did  not  the  shepherds 
hum  it  on  their  homeward  way  as  they 
sang  their  own  glorias?  May  not  some 
strains  of  it  still  linger,  unrecognized,  in 
the  minstrelsy  of  the  church  .^^  Surely 
much  of  our  highest  and  holiest  melodies 
have  come  down  to  us  from  heaven. 

What  holidays  do  they  keep  in  heaven.'* 
There  are  two  earthly  festivals  to  which 
they  sent  delegates — Christmas  and  Easter 
day.  Beside  our  visible  world  there  is  an 
unseen  world  that  thinks  in  sympathy 
with  ours.  Heaven  sends  special  trains  to 
84 


GLORIA'  IN  EXCELSIS 

all  the  great  spiritual  events  of  human 
history.  For  earth  is  the  school  of  angels. 
The  principalities  and  powers  in  heavenly 
places  are  supremely  interested  in  the 
mystery  of  redemption.  "Which  things 
the  angels  longed  to  look  into."  Even 
the  stars  are  sympathetic,  and  a  new 
radiance  starts  out  of  the  darkness  to 
grace  the  scene  of  His  nativity.  The 
shining  ranks  of  the  heavenly  host  stand 
entranced  before  earth's  highest  fact,  and 
descend  to  adore  the  newborn  King. 
AVhen  he  bringeth  his  First-Begotten  into 
the  world  he  saith,  "Let  all  the  angels  of 
God  worship  him!" 

The  Gloria  in  Excelsis  brings  heaven 
and  earth  together  in  a  dual  song.  It 
has  two  notes — Glory  and  Peace.  The 
angels  keep  in  mind  the  heaven  from 
which  they  come  and  the  earth  to  which 
they  sing.  They  send  a  strain  both  to 
God  and  man.  Long  ago  the  psalmist 
had  a  hint  of  this  celestial  and  terrestrial 
duet:  "Let  the  heavens  rejoice  and  let 
the  earth  be  glad." 

The  Gloria  in  Excelsis,  like  the  In- 
carnate One  it  celebrates,  is  both  divine 
85 


THE  CHRISTMAS  CANTICLES 

and  human.  It  lifts  a  praise  to  the  skies 
and  floats  a  blessing  down  to  earth.  It 
celebrates  the  twin  fruits  of  redemption, 
a  higher  glory  to  God  and  a  richer  glad- 
ness for  man.  For  the  incarnation  itself 
is  the  union  of  God  and  man,  the  mar- 
riage of  heaven  and  earth.  The  Son  of 
man  is  the  heavenly  ladder  by  which  the 
angels  travel  up  and  down,  and  by  him 
glory  goes  upward  to  God  and  peace 
comes  down  to  man.  Let  us  study  these 
two  entwined  strains  of  sacred  song  in 
which  the  Magnificat  and  the  Benedictus 
are  so  blended. 

Glory  to  God  !  this  is  the  first  and  last 
note  of  every  true  hymn.  In  the  Euchar- 
istic  Hymn  this  canticle  has  been  worked 
out  in  greater  fullness:  *'We  praise  thee, 
we  bless  thee,  we  worship  thee,  we  glorify 
thee,  we  give  thanks  to  thee  for  thy  great 
glory."  And  we  give  a  new  climax  to  the 
praise  of  the  ancient  psalmody,  by  the 
Gloria  Patri,  a  doxology  to  the  Holy 
Trinity.  It  is  the  recurring  motive  in 
the  universal  song  of  nature  and  history. 
God  is  glorified  in  all  things.  Stars  write 
the  shining  splendor  of  his  name  against 
86 


GLORIA  IN  EXCELSIS 

the  blue  vault  of  the  sky,  and  flowers 
the  beauty  of  his  character  on  the  green 
plams  of  earth.  The  heavens  declare  the 
glory  of  his  power,  and  earth  reveals  his 
creative  wisdom. 

No  verb  appears  either  in  the  Greek 
or  English  version  of  this  anthem.  Did 
they  mean  "All  glory  is  to  God"  or  "Let 
glory  be  to  God".^  Certainly  both,  it  is 
both  assertion  and  command.  The  angels 
not  only  sing  God's  glory  but  they  invite 
our  songs.  They  stand  ready  to  assist 
our  praise  and  present  it  perfect  before 
God.  All  religious  worship  is  union  with 
the  celestial  choirs.  "Therefore  with 
angels  and  archangels  and  all  the  com- 
pany of  heaven  we  laud  and  magnify  thy 
glorious  name,  evermore  praising  thee  and 
saying,  Holy,  holy,  holy.  Lord  God  of 
Hosts!  Heaven  and  earth  are  full  of  thy 
glory;  glory  be  to  thee,  O  God  most  high!" 
The  angelic  songsters  are  a  heavenly 
megaphone  which,  taking  our  feeblest 
adoration  and  catching  the  faintest  ripple 
of  our  poor  praise,  swells  them  into  majes- 
tic symphonies  of  glory  and  bears  them  to 
the  highest  places.    Edward  Perronet,  who 

87 


THE  CHRISTIVIAS  CANTICLES 

wrote  that  noble  hymn,  "All  hail  the 
power  of  Jesus'  name!"  whispered  with 
his  dying  breath,  "Glory  to  God  in  the 
heights  of  his  divinity,  glory  to  God  in 
the  depths  of  his  humanity,  glory  to  God 
in  his  all  sufficiency!"  Surely,  that  fail- 
ing mortal  breath  stirred  the  air  of  heaven 
with  a  full  strain  of  devotion. 

Already  we  have  noted  that  the  angels 
began  to  sing  when  they  heard  the  seraphic 
preacher  name  the  sign  of  the  swaddling 
clothes  and  the  manger.  "Manger"  was 
the  last  word  of  the  sermon  and  "glory" 
the  first  word  of  the  song.  Heaven  comes 
down  to  earth  to  create  a  new  sort  of 
glory — a  beauty  not  of  blazing  splendors 
but  of  a  lowly  birth.  Read  further  on  in 
the  Gospel  and  you  shall  find  the  song 
only  a  prelude  to  sorrow,  the  preface  to 
the  cross.  The  meanness  of  the  crib  be- 
tween the  ox  and  the  ass  becomes  the 
scandal  of  the  cross  between  two  thieves. 
The  angels  differ  from  worldlings  in  their 
concept  of  glory.  They  do  not  see  it  alone 
in  the  beauty  of  form  and  color,  the  splen- 
dor of  stars,  the  flashing  of  jewels,  and  the 

pomp  of  kings.     There  is  a  moral  beauty 

88 


GLORIA  IN  EXCELSIS 

born  of  love  and  revealed  in  sacrifice  and 
service  to  which  earthly  vision  is  often  bKnd, 
but  which  spiritual  sight  can  see.  John 
says,  "We  beheld  his  glory,"  but  defines 
it,  not  as  power  and  wisdom,  but  as  grace 
and  truth.  Love  is  more  splendid  than 
power,  for  it  is  moral  power  that  shall 
subdue  all  the  might  of  matter.  Sacrifice 
is  more  glorious  than  wisdom,  for  it  is 
the  divine  secret  that  shall  solve  all  the 
problems  of  life.  Paul  found  the  object 
of  his  glorying  in  the  cross.  It  is  the 
descent  of  our  God  down  the  long  stairs  of 
humiliation  and  pain  that  starts  the  shout 
of  glory  that  mounts  to  the  highest  heav- 
ens. Somewhere  an  Anglican  divine  says 
quaintly,  "He  that  came  in  clouts  shall 
come  again  in  clouds." 

Peace  on  Earth  !  Glory  has  too  often 
been  a  military  dream,  but  we  dare  not 
divorce  God's  glory  from  earth's  peace. 
Yet  the  marvel  of  it  is  that  it  is  a  celestial 
army  that  comes  singing  peace.  John 
Wiclif  gave  us  a  literal  translation  of  the 
text  when  he  describes  the  angelic  chorus 
as  "a  multitude  of  heavenly  soldiers.''^ 
The  hosts  of  heaven  fight  for  peace,  not 

89 


THE  CHRISTMAS  CANTICLES 

with  carnal  weapons  but  with  the  holy 
harmony  of  law,  the  sword  of  truth,  and 
the  divine  dynamite  of  love.  "The  Son 
of  God  goes  forth  to  war,"  not  to  kill 
and  destroy,  but  to  save  and  redeem.  He 
himself  is  the  first  victim  of  his  holy  war 
against  sin  and  death. 

Peace  on  earth!  was  it  assertion,  prayer, 
or  prophecy.^  Doubtless  it  was  all  three. 
For  there  was  a  strange  peace  on  earth 
at  that  moment.  For  the  third  time  in 
seven  hundred  years  the  gates  of  the 
temple  of  Janus  at  Rome  were  closed — a 
symbol  of  the  great  Augustan  peace. 

*'No  war  or  battle  sound 
Was  heard  the  world  around; 

The  idle  spear  and  shield  were  high  uphung; 
The  hooked  chariot  stood, 
Unstained  with  hostile  blood. 

The  trumpet  spoke  not  to  the  armed  throng; 
And  kings  sat  still  with  watchful  eye 
As  if  they  surely  knew  their  sovereign  Lord  was  by. 

"But  peaceful  was  the  night 
Wherein  the  Prince  of  Light 

His  reign  of  peace  upon  the  earth  began; 
The  winds,  with  wonder  whist. 
Smoothly  the  waters  kissed. 

Whispering  new  joys  to  the  mild  ocean; 
90 


GLORIA  IN  EXCELSIS 

Who  now  hath  quite  forgot  to  rave,* 
While  birds  of  calm  sit  brooding  on  the  charmed 
wave." 

There  was  peace  upon  the  earth,  but  it 
was  not  the  peace  of  God.  It  was  a  Ro- 
man peace,  the  peace  of  power  and  con- 
quest. 

Peace  was  the  prayer  and  prophecy  of 
the  angels,  but  they  are  not  yet  fulfilled. 
It  sounds  like  a  cynical  sarcasm  when  we 
think  of  two  thousand  years  of  carnage 
and  slaughter.  The  soil  of  earth  is  still 
soaked  with  blood,  and  nations,  miscalled 
Christian,  still  load  it  with  vast  armaments 
of  destruction. 

"Strange  prophecy!  if  all  the  screams 

Of  all  the  men  that  since  have  died 
To  realize  war's  kingly  dreams 

Had  risen  at  once  in  one  vast  tide, 
The  choral  voice  of  that  vast  multitude 
Had  been  o'erpowered  and  lost  amid  the  uproar 
rude." 

In   the   last   decade   we   have  seen  four 
Christmases,  not  white,  but  crimson  with 
the  most  hellish  slaughter  of  all  timje. 
But  international  war  is  not  the  worst 


John  Milton. 

91 


THE  CHRISTMAS  CANTICLES 

violation  of  this  song  of  peace.  What  a 
satire  on  the  mission  of  our  Lord  is  church 
history  with  its  theological  hates  and 
cruel  persecutions!  Worse  still  are  our 
personal  hates  and  private  wars  of  selfish- 
ness and  greed.  How  human  life  still 
jars  and  spoils  the  music  of  heaven!  We 
have  only  sung  half  the  hymn,  the  glory 
in  the  highest;  and  that  half  is  a  poor 
bit  of  praise  until  we  let  the  full  heavenly 
chorus  fill  our  hearts  with  the  heavenly 
peace.  For  heaven's  peace  shall  bring  a 
new  glory  to  earth  and  peace  on  earth 
waft  a  greater  glory  to  the  skies. 

But  personal  peace  does  come  to  the 
soul  that  learns  from  the  Incarnate  One 
to  trust  the  Father's  will.  Peace  is  to  the 
men  of  peace,  the  men  of  good  wiU.  Peace! 
where  is  it.^  not  in  valleys  or  on  mountain 
tops,  not  in  palaces  of  power  nor  on  the 
thrones  of  kings.  But  real  peace  does 
dwell  in  hearts  that  know  the  holy  hush 
of  harmony  with  heaven.  It  is  not  a  far- 
off  song,  but  an  inward  experience. 
Through  all  life's  tumult  we  may  bear  a 
present  heaven  in  the  heart. 

Shall   angels  sing  and  men  be  silent? 
92 


GLORIA  IN  EXCELSIS 

Can  Gabriel  and  Michael,  who  cannot 
know  the  full  gladness  of  redemption,  say 
"Glory  to  God!"  like  the  redeemed  soul? 
Sweeter  than  seraph's  song  is  the  shout 
of  the  saint. 

Peace  did  come  on  Christmas  day,  it 
is  coming  now,  and  some  day  the  divine 
harmony  of  God's  music  which  is  Jesus 
Christ  shall  drown  out  all  earth's  discords. 
This  motive,  creative  and  redemptive, 
sounds  high  above  all  the  dissonances  of 
life  earth,  and  one  day  shall  be  woven 
into  every  strain  of  life. 
"Blow,  bugles  of  battle,  the  marches  of  peace; 

East,  west,  north,  and  south  let  the  long  quarrel 
cease; 

Sing  the  song  of  great  joy  that  the  angels  began. 

Sing  of  glory  to  God  and  of  goodwill  to  man! 
Hark!  joining  in  chorus 
The  heavens  bend  o'er  us! 

The  dark  night  is  ending  and  dawn  has  begun; 

Rise,  hope  of  the  ages,  arise  like  the  sun; 

All  speech  flow  to  music,  all  hearts  beat  as  one!"^ 

In  the  Middle  Ages  they  fought  so  much 
that  it  became  necessary  to  agree  upon  a 
rest  from  fighting  four  days  in  every  week, 
from    Wednesday    night    until    Monday 

'  John  Greenleaf  Whittier. 

93 


THE  CHRISTMAS  CANTICLES 

morning,  which  was  called  the  "Truce  of 
God."  And  in  our  time  the  nations  are 
planning  at  Washington  and  Genoa  for  a 
ten  years'  holiday  from  war.  It  is  a  good 
thing  to  do,  but  is  a  poor  scrap  from  the 
divine  program  of  universal  and  perpetual 
peace.  And  that  shall  come,  as  Isaiah 
and  Micah  prophesied,  "for  the  mouth  of 
Jehovah  hath  spoken  it!"  The  angels  have 
gone  away  into  heaven,  even  as  a  lark 
vanishes  in  the  upper  air,  but  still  the 
song  of  the  unseen  host,  with  its  heavenly 
vision  of  glory  and  its  earthly  promise 
of  peace,  broods  over  the  discords  of  the 
ages.  One  day  a  rebellious  world,  defiant 
of  God  and  belligerent  toward  men,  shall 
be  loyal  and  loving.  The  Kingdom  shall 
come  when  the  will  of  earth  surrenders 
to  that  of  heaven. 

"Babe  of  a  thousand  birthdays,  we  that  are  young 

yet  gray, 
White  with  the  centuries,  still  can  find  no  better 

thing  to  say. 
We  that  with  sects  and  whims  and  wars  have 

wasted  Christmas  Day. 

"Light  thou  thy  censer  to  thyself,  for  all  our  fii*es 
are  dim, 

94 


GLORIA  IN  EXCELSIS 

Stamp  thou  thine  image  on  our  coin,  for  Caesar's 

face  grows  grim 
And  a  dumb  devil  of  pride  and  greed  has  taken 

hold  of  him. 

"We  bring  thee  back  great  Christendom,  churches, 

and  towns  and  towers. 
And  if  our  hands  are  glad,  O  God,  to  cast  them 

down  like  flowers, 
'Tis  not  that  they  enrich  thine  hands,  but  they 

are  saved  from  ours."^ 

In  this  chaos  of  confusion  and  unrest 
that  has  followed  the  World  War,  in 
which  the  twin  dragons  of  Reaction  and 
Revolution  are  struggling  for  mastery,  let 
the  Church  of  Christ  arise  to  hush  the 
clamor  of  selfishness  and  cruel  din  of 
militarism,  that  the  world  may  again  hear 
the  angels  sing. 

» Gilbert  Keith  Chesterton. 


95 


NAMING  THE  CHILD— A  NEW 
YEAR'S  IVIEDITATION 

BY  what  name  shall  we  call  the  child? 
Many  are  quite  careless  in  naming 
the  baby,  for  a  name  may  become 
a  blessing  or  a  burden.  It  should  have 
dignity,  euphony,  and  significance.  It 
may  be  true  that  "a  rose  by  any  other 
name  would  smell  as  sweet,"  but  does  not 
the  word  "rose"  sound  more  sweetly  to 
the  ear  than  the  word  "cabbage"  .^^  We 
are  not  surprised,  therefore,  that  when  the 
supreme  birth  of  all  time  came  even  noble 
parents  as  Joseph  and  Mary  were  not 
allowed  to  choose  his  name,  but  heaven 
announced  it  even  before  his  conception 
to  each  of  them  separately. 

The  Bible  everywhere  places  great  em- 
phasis upon  names,  for  in  the  Hebrew 
psychology  a  name  was  more  than  a  con- 
ventional distinction,  it  was  a  picture  of 

personality.    A  crisis  in  life  and  character 
96 


NAMING  THE  CHILD 

brought  a  change  of  name:  Abram  becomes 
Abraham;  Jacob  the  supplanter  becomes 
Israel,  a  prince  of  God;  Simon  becomes 
Peter,  the  rock;  and  Saul  the  persecutor 
becomes  Paul  the  missionary.  So  names 
are  more  than  external  badges;  they  stand 
for  inner  attributes  of  the  human  spirit. 

The  Holy  Scriptures  give  us  many  names 
of  God,  marking  the  progressive  revela- 
tion of  his  nature  to  man.  In  Genesis 
we  see  his  power  in  the  name  El  Shaddai, 
"the  Almighty";  in  Exodus  his  providence 
in  the  sacred  Tetragrammaton,  "Jeho- 
vah"; Isaiah  shows  us  his  moral  character 
as  the  Holy  One  of  Israel.  And  still  the 
world  waited  for  another  word,  and  Jesus 
taught  us  to  say  "Our  Father."  What 
name  mil  best  fit  him  who  is  both  God 
and  man.f^ 

New  Year's  Day,  one  week  after  Christ- 
mas, is  the  Feast  of  the  Circumcision,  the 
anniversary  of  that  day  when  He  who 
was  to  do  away  with  the  law  became  a 
son  of  the  law,  by  that  historic  rite  which 
corresponds  to  Christian  baptism,  in  which 
we  to-day  name  our  children. 

What  name  shall  He  bear?  what  word 

97 


THE  CHRISTMAS  CANTICLES 

shall  go  down  to  history  to  be  enshrined 
in  human  hearts,  borne  aloft  in  human 
prayers  and  tuned  to  melody  in  human 
songs?  "And  when  the  eight  days  were 
fulfilled  for  circumcising  him,  his  name  was 
called  Jesus,  which  was  so  called  by  the 
angel  before  he  was  conceived."  It  was 
not  an  uncommon  name  for  Jewish  chil- 
dren; he  must  not  be  separated  from  man- 
kind by  some  ingenious  invention  of  a 
unique  title.  There  are  not  less  than  three 
in  Holy  Writ  who  bore  it,  chief  of  whom 
was  Joshua,  the  great  successor  of  Moses. 
When  the  "Prince  of  Jehovah's  host" 
appeared  to  Joshua  in  his  vision  may  not 
that  captain  of  the  unseen  army  have 
been  one  with  him  who  coming  in  human 
flesh  took  as  his  human  name  that  of  the 
great  Hebrew  commander.^  For  the  true 
successor  to  Moses,  by  whom  the  law  was 
given,  is  not  Joshua  the  son  of  Nun,  who 
conquered  Canaan,  but  Jehoshua  ben 
Miriam,  Jesus  the  son  of  Mary,  in  whom 
the  Gospel  came  that  shall  conquer  the 
world. 

Jesus  is  a  personal  name.    The  highest 
use  of  a  name  is  to  mark  individuality. 

98 


NAMING  THE  CHILD 

The  Bible  gives  him  other  names.  He  is 
the  Shiloh  of  Jacob's  deathbed  song,  the 
Branch  of  Jeremiah's  dream,  the  Prince  of 
the  Four  Names  in  Isaiah's  prophecy. 
And  he  calls  himself  by  other  names. 
He  is  Son  of  David,  Son  of  man,  the  Way, 
Truth,  and  Life,  the  Good  Shepherd,  and 
the  Apocalypse  loves  to  call  him  the  Lamb. 

There  is  only  one  other  word  that  can 
rival  the  name  of  "Jesus"  in  common  use, 
he  is  frequently  called  the  Christ.  But, 
like  the  names  above  mentioned,  it  is  the 
title  of  an  office.  Christ  is  simply  the 
Greek  rendering  of  the  Hebrew  word 
Messiah,  the  Anointed  One,  the  title  given 
to  the  promised  delivering  King  of  Israel 
by  psalmist  and  prophet. 

Shall  we  call  him  Jesus  or  Christ.'^  Of 
course  it  is  proper  to  call  him  either  or 
both,  but  the  personal  name  brings  a 
closer  sense  of  fellowship  than  an  official 
title.  Do  we  have  a  dear  friend  who 
holds  a  high  office.^  and  do  we  call  him 
president,  governor,  mayor,  general?  Is 
he  not  nearer  in  that  personal  name  by 
which  we  have  known  him  since  we  were 
boys    together.'*      So    the    name    "Jesus" 

99 


THE  CHRISTMAS  CANTICLES 

is  repeated  more  than  ten  times  as  often 
in  the  four  Gospels  as  the  title  "Christ." 
It  was  by  this  name  that  his  mother 
called  him  from  his  play  in  the  fields  and 
his  work  in  the  shop  at  Nazareth;  by  this 
name  the  twelve  apostles  knew  him;  and 
"this  same  Jesus"  the  angels  of  the  ascen- 
sion call  him  as  he  sweeps  by  cloud 
chariots  to  his  native  home. 

This  human  name,  given  in  his  humil- 
iation, identifies  him  with  us.  It  has  be- 
come a  divine  name,  borne  by  the  King 
of  kings  and  the  Judge  of  all  mankind. 
And  it  always  was  a  divine  name,  divinely 
ordered,  hinted  in  prophecy,  and  an- 
nounced by  angelic  messengers  to  his 
earthly  parents.  Are  we  not  right  in 
assuming  that  not  man  alone,  not  even 
the  blessed  Virgin  herself,  could  be  trusted 
to  find  out  a  name  for  this  wonderful 
child  .f^  His  Father  purposes  to  call  him  by 
that  name  which  shall  suggest  the  shining 
forth  of  that  attribute  of  mercy  concealed 
in  the  old  divine  titles,  and  now  shining 
forth  in  splendor  from  his  sweet  human 
name. 

Jesus  is   also   a  name  of  Power.     Its 

100 


NAMING  THE  CHILD 

literal  meaning  is  "Jehovah  is  Salvation/^ 
"His  name  shall  be  called  Jesus,  for  he 
shall  save  his  people  from  their  sins." 
He  saves!  This  is  the  testimony  of  faith, 
the  experience  of  love,  and  the  thrill  of 
hope — and  every  time  we  say  it  we  speak: 
a  bit  of  his  name. 

He  alone  saves:  "There  is  no  other 
name  given  among  men  by  which  they 
may  be  saved."  Read  the  many  references 
to  "the  Name"  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apos- 
tles, and  we  shall  learn  that  Jesus,  and  not 
his  word,  his  ordinances,  nor  his  church, 
can  redeem  and  deliver  the  world.  This  is 
the  one  thing  that  separates  Christianity 
from  all  other  religions;  it  centers  in  a 
personal  Saviour.  Confucianism  is  an 
ethic,  Buddhism  a  philosophy,  but  Jesus 
Christ  is  salvation. 

He  saves  from  sin;  not  from  wrath  only, 
nor  from  poverty,  disease,  pain  or  death, 
but  first  and  foremost  from  sin  and  there- 
fore, finally,  from  all  other  woes.  This 
name  of  "Saviour"  has  a  growing  mean- 
ing. "In  His  Name"  has  been  wrought 
out  every  great  deliverance  of  history;  and 
the  other  great  names — Paul,  Augustine, 

101 


THE  CHRISTMAS  CANTICLES 

Luther,  Wesley — are  great  only  because 
he  made  them  so.  "His  name  shall  con- 
tinue so  long  as  the  sun  and  moon  endur- 
eth."  All  other  names,  even  those  dear 
ones  of  father,  mother,  friends,  are  lost 
in  this  "name  which  is  above  every  name." 
It  is  highest  in  the  eternal  hall  of  fame, 
above  poets,  philosophers,  conquerors,  or 
statesmen.  All  stars  grow  pale  before 
this  Morning  Star.  It  is  the  one  supreme 
name  that  time  carries  forth  into  eternity. 
Jesus  is  a  precious  name.  As  Saint 
Bernard  said,  "it  is  honey  in  the  mouth, 
harmony  in  the  ear,  melody  in  the 
heart,  and  joy  in  the  life." 

"There  is  no  name  so  sweet  on  earth. 
No  name  so  dear  in  heaven, 
The  name  before  his  wondrous  birth 
To  Christ  our  Saviour  given.*' 

It  is  a  name  of  real  beauty — two  musical 
syllables,  especially  as  in  other  tongues 
than  ours  they  preserve  more  of  its  an- 
cient cadence  by  saying  Yesu.  The  child 
speaks  it  without  effort,  and  "'tis  music 
in  the  sinner's  ears."  A  freed  woman 
who  was  learning  to  read,  after  wrestling 
with  the  alphabet,  asked  first  to  be  taught 

102 


NAMING  THE  CHILD 

the  name  of  Jesus,  for,  she  said,   "after 
that  all  the  rest  will  be  easier." 

"Sweetest  note  in  seraph  song. 

Sweetest  name  on  mortal  tongue. 
Sweetest  carol  ever  sung,  , 

Jesus,  Jesus,  flow  along." 

Jesus!  it  is  the  watchword  of  every 
New  Year.  It  is  the  holy  magic  by  which 
we  open  the  gates  of  divine  power.  "For 
Jesus'  sake" — this  is  the  penitent's  plea; 
"in  His  name" — that  is  the  Christian's 
law  of  life. 

We  all  possess  two  names;  one  a  family 
name  which  points  to  an  earthly  parent- 
age and  kinship,  the  other,  received  in 
holy  baptism,  we  call  our  Christian  name, 
symbol  of  a  new  heredity  from  a  heavenly 
Father  and  a  new  kinship  in  the  spiritual 
family  of  our  Lord. 

Our  Christ  is  not  unchristened;  we  do 
not  have  an  anonymous  Lord.  His  divine 
name  in  prophecy  is  Immanuel,  "God 
with  us,"  his  human  name  in  history  is 
Jesus,  the  Saviour.  So  earth  by  its  hu- 
man prophet  proclaims  his  divinity  and 
heaven  by  its  angelic  messenger  discloses 

his  humanity. 

103 


THE  CHRISTMAS  CANTICLES 

The  year  ends  with  the  birth  and 
begins  with  the  naming  of  our  Lord. 
Let  his  be  the  one  Name  of  names  with 
which  we  praise  the  past  and  welcome 
the  coming  year.  He  is  our  Child,  the 
gift  of  God  and  the  heir  of  humankind. 
His  name  should  be  written  in  every 
family  record  as  our  own. 

* 'Given,  not  lent. 
And  not  withdrawn  once  sent. 
This  Infant  of  mankind,  this  One, 
Is  still  the  little  welcome  Son. 

"New  every  year. 
Newborn  and  newly  dear, 
He  comes  with  tidings  and  a  song 
The  ages  long,  the  ages  long."* 


'  Alice  Meynell. 


104 


XI 

THE  PROPHETIC  PRINCE  OF 
THE  FOUR  NA:MES 

WE    celebrate    at    Christmas    the 
greatest  birthday  of  all  time,  but 
it  is  more  than  that,  it  is  above 
all  a  birthday  in  our  own  family,  a  source 
of  personal  joy.    Its  message  is  both  uni- 
versal and  individual. 

*TFnto  you  a  child  is  bom,"  sang  the 
herald,  and  that  is  all  an  angel  could 
say,  for  the  whitest-winged  seraph  could 
have  no  such  interest  in  the  incarnation 
as  do  we,  and  yet  the  angels  were  glad 
to  sing  glorias  over  our  good  news.  But 
"not  to  angels  did  he  take  hold";  he  did 
not  become  an  angel,  he  became  a  man, 
and  therefore  the  prophet  Isaiah,  being 
himself  a  man,  proclaims  "Unto  us  a 
child  is  bom." 

So  did  this  joy  send  its  glory  back  seven 
hundred  years  and  made  musical  the  lan- 
guage of  saints  and  seers.     One  wonders 

105 


THE  CHRISTMAS  CANTICLES 

if  that  prophetic  message  in  the  ninth 
chapter  of  Isaiah  does  not  unconsciously 
reveal  a  double  birth  in  its  Hebrew  parallel- 
ism. "Unto  us  a  child  is  born.''  That  is 
the  earthly  fact  of  human  parentage; 
"Unto  us  a  son  is  given."  That  is  the 
heavenly  act  of  the  Eternal  Father. 

How  shall  God  come  to  earth?  Men 
have  dreamed  strange  dreams  of  his 
appearing,  sky  signs  of  splendor,  pomp 
of  fiery  chariots,  salvos  of  thunders,  ban- 
ners of  fire,  careering  comets,  etc.  But 
his  most  princely  path  of  approach  was 
by  the  gateway  of  a  lowly  birth. 

What  name  shall  we  give  to  this  Child 
of  us  all.?  Many  significant  titles  have 
been  assigned  to  him:  Immanuel,  God 
with  us,  Christ  the  Anointed  One,  Jesus 
the  Saviour.  But  none  are  fuller  of  mean- 
ing than  the  four  great  prophetic  names 
of  Isaiah  9.  6. 

1.  Wonderful  Counselor.  The  prophet 
proclaims  a  prophet.  Isaiah,  himself  a 
statesman  and  the  wise  counselor  of 
kings,  foretells  the  most  marvelous  states- 
man of  all  history.  "Master,"  "Teacher," 
such  his  disciples  called  him,  and  the 
106 


PRINCE  OF  THE  FOUR  NAMES 

multitude  that  heard  him  were  astonished 
at  his  teaching,  for  here  was  a  philosopher 
beside  whose  sayings  all  thought  grows 
foolish,  a  poet  whose  creations  transcend 
all  art,  a  statesman  who  alone  can  carry 
permanent  dominion  upon  his  shoulder. 

'*He  spake  as  never  man  spake,"  from 
the  first  words  of  wisdom  that  "Mary 
treasured  in  her  heart"  to  the  last  divine 
promise  that  transformed  the  old  despair 
into  undying  hope,  "Lo,  I  am  with  you 
always."  His  method  as  teacher  is  "won- 
derful"; it  is  the  voice  of  immediate 
vision;  he  stands  in  the  unsullied  radiance 
of  unclouded  Truth;  he  speaks  as  one 
having  authority,  an  authority  that  never 
reasons,  argues,  or  doubts,  but  possesses 
the  absolute  compulsion  of  spiritual  and 
moral  certainty.  Could  any  counselor  be 
more  wonderful  .^^ 

2.  Mighty  God,  To  wisdom  he  joins 
power.  He  is  not  only  the  Counselor  to 
legislate,  but  also  the  King  to  execute 
his  laws.  His  glory  is  not  of  the  Word 
only,  but  also  of  the  Deed.  He  is  the 
God-Hero,  the  Deliverer  on  whose  shoul- 
ders rests  the  weight  of  the  world's  govern- 

107 


THE  CHRISTMAS  CANTICLES 

ment.  He  is  the  world's  conqueror,  of  a 
sort  unlike  the  historic  destroyers,  Alex- 
ander, Csesar,  Napoleon.  His  might  is  a 
different  kind  of  might,  which  wins  through 
love  and  convinces  through  right.  He 
touches  tyranny  and  it  crumbles,  slavery 
and  it  vanishes,  wrong  and  it  falls.  Around 
his  cradle,  like  that  of  Hercules,  lie  the 
slain  serpents  of  false  philosophies,  effete 
civilizations,  dead  institutions,  and  selfish 
social  order.  He  is  the  Victor  in  the 
eternal  conflict  between  light  and  darkness. 

In  the  noble  words  of  Richter:  "He, 
the  mightiest  among  the  holy  and  the 
holiest  among  the  mighty,  with  his  pierced 
hand  has  lifted  the  gates  of  empire  from 
their  hinges,  turned  the  stream  of  cen- 
turies from  its  channel  and  still  governs 
the  ages." 

Above  all  he  has  overcome  Sin  and 
Death. 

3.  Everlasting  Father.  We  could  never 
be  satisfied  with  a  God  who  was  only 
wisdom  and  might;  the  heart  longs  for 
love.  He  is  a  Father  forever.  This  is 
the  supreme  significance  of  the  incarna- 
tion; it  opens  up  the  heart  of  God.     We 


PRINCE  OF  THE  FOUR  NAMES 

see  the  hand  of  God  in  the  heavens,  the 
mind  of  God  in  the  earth,  but  the  love 
of  God  is  seen  nowhere  else  as  in  the 
glory  of  grace  and  truth  which  shine  in  the 
face  of  Jesus  Christ. 

"He  that  hath  seen  me  hath  seen  the 
Father."  He  reveals  Fatherhood  by  Son- 
ship.  This  is  Saint  Paul's  statement  of 
the  Advent:  "God  sent  forth  his  Son." 
From  his  first  recorded  words,  when  he 
suggested  that  the  place  to  find  him  was 
his  Father's  house,  to  the  last  word  of 
the  cross,  commending  his  Spirit  to  his 
Father's  care,  he  was  revealing  the  Father. 

Other  loves  fail;  his  Fatherhood  is 
eternal.  Our  earthly  fathers  die  and  the 
world  seems  a  desert,  but  "Thou  art  the 
same,  and  thy  years  shall  not  fail."  Dying 
men  need  and  have  an  undying  Christ. 

"Come  to  this  God,  ye  weepers,  for  he  weeps; 
Come  to  him,  ye  who  suffer,  for  he  cures; 
Come  to  him,  ye  who  fear,  he  pity  keeps; 
Come  to  him,  ye  who  pass,  for  he  endures. "i 

4.  Prince  of  Peace.  Fatherhood  creates 
brotherhood.  And  so  the  Christmas  angels 
sing,  "Peace  on  earth." 

1  Victor  Hugo. 

109 


THE  CHRISTMAS  CANTICLES 

This  twentieth  century  has  passed 
through  four  of  the  most  terrible  Christ- 
mas days  of  history,  not  white  but  crim- 
son Christmases.  The  angeHc  hynm  has 
been  drowned  by  the  horrid  din  of  war. 
Marching  armies,  burning  cities,  ruined 
homes,  bHghted  beauty,  weeping  widows, 
wasted  wealth — has  Christianity  failed? 
Does  a  remedy  fail  when  men  will  not 
take  it?  Christianity  has  not  yet  been 
tried. 

It  is  the  mundane  theory  of  life  that 
has  failed.  The  deification  of  force,  the 
great  illusion  of  personal  and  national 
self-interest,  the  preposterous  theory  of 
preparedness  as  insurance  against  war, 
the  doctrine  of  grab  and  get  which  rules 
politics  and  business — all  have  failed,  and 
we  are  paying  the  penalty.  "The  Empire 
is  peace,"  said  Napoleon,  but  so  is  a  grave- 
yard. "They  make  a  desolation  and  call 
it  peace." 

What  has  failed?  Government,  politics, 
commerce,  science,  invention,  society,  bus- 
iness— all  have  failed,  but  "He  shall  not 
fail  nor  be  discouraged  until  he  has  set 
judgment  in  the  earth,  and  the  isles  shall 
110 


PRINCE  OF  THE  FOUR  NAMES 

wait  for  his  law."  There  can  be  no  peace 
in  an  un-Christian  world,  a  world  without 
Christ.  He  has  not  failed ;  he  has  brought 
peace  to  many  humble  hearts.  He  will 
bring  it  to  the  world.  In  the  context, 
Isaiah  pictures  the  burning  up  of  the 
implements  and  munitions  of  war.  That 
is  what  the  Conquering  Christ  will  do 
with  cannon  and  Dreadnaughts. 

The  Prince  of  the  Four  Names  shall 
convince  the  world  by  his  wisdom,  sub- 
due it  by  his  might,  inspire  it  with  his 
love,  and  bless  it  with  his  peace. 


Ill 


XII 

THE  SAGES,  THE  STAR,  AND 
THE  SAVIOUR 

ALL  things  are  prophetic  to  the 
instructed  soul.  Columbus  could 
see  a  new  world  in  a  floating 
branch;  to  the  star-gazers  of  the  Orient 
a  new  sign  in  the  sky  announced  the 
birth  of  a  Deliverer  and  King.  Suetonius 
tells  us  that  during  the  reign  of  Augustus 
"throughout  the  East  an  old  and  estab- 
lished opinion  was  disseminated  that  it 
was  decreed  by  fate  that  they  who  were 
to  possess  the  sovereignty  of  the  world 
were  to  arise  from  Judaea."  The  hope  of 
Israel  had  filled  the  world  with  longing 
hearts  and  looking  eyes. 

Parseeism,  the  religion  of  Zoroaster,  was 
perhaps  the  purest  of  the  ethnic  faiths 
outside  of  Judaism.  These  worshipers  of 
flame  found  in  the  stars  of  heaven  the 
secrets  of  destiny.  There  is  an  inner 
truth  in  the  false  science  of  astrology, 
this — that  there  is  deep  sympathy  between 

112 


THE  SAGES,  STAR,  AND  SAVIOUR 

the  sensible  and  the  spiritual  worlds. 
When  Deborah  sings,  "The  stars  in  their 
courses  fought  against  Sisera,"  it  is  more 
than  splendid  poetry;  it  is  the  sublime 
assertion  that  the  universe  is  pledged  to 
righteousness. 

"Ye  stars  which  are  the  poetry  of  heaven! 

If  in  your  bright  leaves  we  would  read  the  fate 
Of  men  and  empires — 'tis  to  be  forgiven 

That  in  our  aspirations  to  be  great 

Our  destinies  o'erleap  our  mortal  state, 
And  claim  a  kindred  with  you,  for  ye  are 

A  beauty  and  a  mystery,  and  create 
In  us  such  love  and  reverence  from  afar, 
That  fortune,  fame,  power,  life  have  named  them- 
selves a  star."i 

God  has  various  voices  by  which  he 
speaks  to  men  and  guides  them.  A  song 
leads  humble  shepherds  to  the  Lamb  of 
God,  the  inward  Spirit  shows  Simeon  the 
Messiah  in  the  Babe,  Joseph  is  taught  by 
a  dream,  and  the  wise  men  by  a  star. 
God  speaks  to  every  faculty;  by  the  roads 
of  reason,  feeling,  and  imagination  he 
finds  a  way  to  the  life  of  man.  So  true 
wisdom  leads  to  the  Christ.  "A  little 
philosophy    inclineth    man's    heart    unto 

1  Lord  Byron. 

113 


THE  CHRISTMAS  CANTICLES 

atheism,  but  depth  of  philosophy  bring- 
eth  us  to  providence  and  deity." 

"Let  knowledge  grow  from  more  to  more, 
And  more  of  reverence  in  us  dwell. 
That  mind  to  soul  according  well 
May  make  one  music  as  before."^ 

Lichtenburg  well  says,  "When  the  mind 
rises,  it  throws  the  body  on  its  knees." 

Nature  guides  to  grace.  The  star  led 
the  sages  to  the  Holy  City,  where  they 
foimd  the  Holy  Book  which  should  direct 
them  farther  in  their  search.  The  sky 
sign  pointed  to  the  place  in  Micah,  "Thou, 
Bethlehem,  out  of  thee  shall  come  a  gov- 
ernor whose  goings  forth  have  been  from 
everlasting."  All  the  words  of  God  in 
spangled  heavens,  on  sacred  page,  and  on 
the  face  of  a  little  child,  speak  the  same 
message.  "Search  and  see"  is  the  demand 
of  the  intellect.  The  sages  follow  the 
gleam  of  their  own  star  study,  and  we 
see  the  caravan  of  camels  hasting  across 
the  desert  wastes  and  up  the  Judsean 
hills  in  the  city  of  God  and  the  cradle 
of  the  Christ.  There  may  be  false  lights 
that  mislead  the  mind  of  man,  but  all 

2  Alfred  Tennyson. 

114 


THE  SAGES,  STAR,  AND  SAVIOUR 

true  lights  of  nature  and  reason  lead  at 
last  to  the  Light  of  the  world.  Star, 
Scripture,  Son — such  is  the  threefold  reve- 
lation of  the  redemptive  purpose. 

The  heavens  have  ever  been  telling  the 
glory  of  God.  Monotheism  was  born  in 
the  desert,  "where  man  is  distant  and 
God  is  near,"  and  where  there  is  nothing 
worth  looking  at  but  the  star-studded 
vault  of  the  sky.  When  Jean  Bon 
St.  Andre,  the  atheistic  revolutionist,  said 
to  a  Breton  peasant,  "We  will  pull  down 
all  your  church  steeples,"  the  undaimted 
believer  responded,  "But  you  can't  pull 
down  the  stars."  Young  said,  "The 
undevout  astronomer  is  mad,"  and  Kepler, 
the  founder  of  modem  astronomy,  ex- 
claimed, "I  think  God's  thoughts  after 
him." 

They  sought  a  king;  they  heard  a  Baby 
cry.  In  a  small  inn,  in  a  little  town  in 
an  obscure  province  of  an  enslaved  people, 
they  found  the  "Desire  of  all  nations." 
There  is  no  higher  wisdom  than  that 
which  knows  that  bigness  is  not  great- 
ness.    The  sages  see  the  Saviour  in  the 

young  child,  more  glorious  in  his  helpless 
115 


THE  CHRISTMAS  CANTICLES 

infancy  than  any  blazing  meteor  of  their 
adored  heavens,  and  "they  worshiped 
him."  True  wisdom  bows  to  the  Babe 
and  sees  God  in  the  manger.  If  we  had 
insight  enough  to  see  in  every  newborn 
child  a  "holy  thing,"  the  incarnation  would 
soon  cease  to  puzzle  our  reason,  through 
the  light  it  gives  to  the  heart.  Words- 
worth's apostrophe  to  the  Child  in  his 
"Intimations  of  Immortality"  most  beau- 
tifully expresses  the  truth  that  God  could 
nowhere  in  nature  or  life  reveal  himself 
more  perfectly  than  in  the  babe. 

"Thou  whose  exterior  semblance  doth  belie 
Thy  soul's  immensity,  .  .  . 
Haunted  forever  by  the  eternal  mind, 

Mighty  Prophet!    Seer  blest! 

On  whom  those  truths  do  rest 
Which  we  are  toiling  all  our  lives  to  find." 


116 


xni 

THE  KING  AND  THE  KINGS— AN 
EPIPHANY  MEDITATION 

MORE  than  the  Oriental  Magi  were 
looking  for  some  great  birth  of 
time  at  the  period  of  the  advent 
of  our  Lord.  Only  a  few  years  previously 
Virgil,  in  his  Fourth  Eclogue,  had  sung 
of  a  child  who  should  bring  back  the  age 
of  gold.  The  hope  of  Israel  had  filled  the 
world  with  longing  and  looking.  In  his 
marvelously  beautiful  tragedy  of  Herod, 
Stephen  Phillips  has  made  us  feel 

"A  sense  of  something  coming  in  the  world, 
A  crying  of  dead  prophets  from  their  tombs, 
A  singing  of  dead  poets  from  their  graves." 

No  wonder  that  Herod  was  troubled. 
There  is  no  terror  to  tyrants  like  the 
coming  of  a  new  order.  The  forces  of 
reaction  take  advantage  of  every  time 
of  social  and  political  unrest  to  scare  the 
people  because  they  themselves  are 
alarmed.  But  there  is  a  holy  insurgency 
in  history  which  is  forever  dooming  the 
117 


THE  CHRISTMAS  CANTICLES 

dominion  of  the  regulars.  The  kings 
cower  before  the  coming  of  the  King. 
And  so  it  is  true  in  every  age  when  the 
ever-returning  Christ  makes  his  world  to 
pass  through  the  furnace  of  transforma- 
tion, that  "the  kings  of  the  earth  set 
themselves,  and  the  rulers  take  coimsel 
against  Jehovah  and  against  his  Anointed." 
The  kings  cannot  understand  the  King. 
The  rulers  who  gather  armies  and  build 
warships  cannot  comprehend  the  Prince 
of  Peace.  Herod,  the  friend  of  Antony, 
the  ally  of  Augustus,  the  builder  of  cities, 
the  maker  of  marble  magnificences,  has  no 
kinship  of  spirit  with  the  Carpenter-King 
who  has  his  throne  in  human  hearts  and 
whose  spiritual  craftsmanship  shall  build 
a  spiritual  city  outlasting  all  pyramids  and 
palaces.  And  thus  the  poet  has  inter- 
preted his  fearful  mood: 

"Wandering  night  by  night 
Among  the  people  of  Jerusalem, 
I  hear  a  whispering  of  some  new  King, 
A  child  who  is  to  sit  where  I  am  sitting, 
And  he  shall  charm  and  soothe,  and  breathe  and 

bless; 
The  roaring  of  war  shall  cease  upon  the  air, 
Falling  of  tears  and  all  the  voices  of  sorrow, 
118 


THE  KING  AND  THE  KINGS 

And  he  shall  take  the  terror  from  the  grave; 
A  gentle  Sovereign.  Ah,  might  there  not  be 
Some  power  in  gentleness  that  we  dream  not  of?" 

The  proud,  passionate  Idumean  tyrant 
cannot  learn  that  lesson;  he  knows  no 
way  to  meet  the  peril  to  his  selfish  sover- 
eignty but  to  trample,  crush,  corrupt,  and 
kill.  He  is  a  type  of  that  world  spirit 
which  still  possesses  the  nations,  which 
knows  no  path  to  power  and  prosperity 
but  that  opened  by  reeking  swords  and 
roaring  cannons. 

In  old  tradition,  the  Wise  Men  who 
came  from  the  East  were  three  kings,  who 
fulfill  in  their  adoration  the  prophetic 
word  that  kings  should  come  to  the 
brightness  of  his  rising,  falling  down  before 
Him  and  offering  gifts.  Kings  they  may 
not  have  been  in  any  political  sense,  but 
they  were,  indeed,  princes  in  the  empire 
of  the  mind.  It  is  the  prerogative  of  true 
wisdom  to  see  the  reality  which  forever 
hides  behind  the  shows  of  sense. 

"To  see  the  world  in  a  grain  of  sand 
And  heaven  in  a  wild  flower, 
Hold  infinity  in  the  palm  of  your  hand 
And  eternity  in  an  hour."^ 

1  WiUiam  Blake. 

119 


THE  CHRISTMAS  CANTICLES 

These  visitors  from  the  land  of  dawn 
came  with  the  morning  freshness  in  their 
souls;  they  had  the  kingliness  that  could 
recognize  real  royalty.  When  Herod  slew, 
they  offered  tribute;  when  he  was  troubled, 
"they  rejoiced  with  exceeding  great  joy." 
The  wise  man  is  the  world's  true  sov- 
ereign; he  can  read  divine  meanings  in 
the  stars  and  see  God  in  a  little  child. 
The  true  monarchs  of  mankind  are  not 
those  who  were  born  in  the  purple  and 
whose  brows  bear  the  diadem,  but  the 
men  of  vision  who  follow  the  gleam  of 
the  ideal.  You  will  always  find  these  true 
kings,  the  supreme  poets  and  prophets, 
prostrate  at  the  cradle  of  the  Christ.  The 
incarnation  is  a  stumbling-block  only  to 
little  minds  without  the  sense  of  spir- 
itual values. 

The  Babe  in  the  Virgin's  arms  has 
given  the  world  a  new  notion  of  kingship; 
more  than  that,  he  has  unveiled  a  new 
vision  of  God.  Slaves  to  our  senses, 
fooled  by  the  pomp  and  glitter  of  external 
things,  we  needed  a  new  measure  of 
worth.  So  when  he  found  all  chambers 
full  he  lay  down  in  manger-bed;  when  all 

120 


THE  KING  AND  THE  KINGS 

other  mansions  were  occupied  he  moved 
into  the  carpenter  shop;  when  all  other 
crowns  were  taken  he  chose  a  crown  of 
thorns;  when  all  other  thrones  were  full 
he  made  a  cross  the  seat  of  his  spiritual 
sway.  He  is  still  "the  Revealer  of  hearts," 
*'a  sign  to  be  spoken  against." 
"A  King  without  regalia, 

A  God  without  the  thunder, 
A  Child  without  the  heart  to  play; 

Aye,  a  Creator  rent  asunder 
From  his  first  glory,  cast  away 
Upon  his  own  world."^ 

The  * 'wisdom"  which  none  of  the  rulers 
of  this  world  knew  is  ours,  if,  like  the 
kingly  Magi,  we  can  confess  the  true 
King,  and  bring  some  worthy  gift,  the 
gold  of  royalty  in  service,  the  incense  of 
worship,  and  the  myrrh  of  sacrifice. 

The  Kings  of  Orient  have  brought 
The  treasures  of  the  earth  and  sea, 

Fit  presents  for  the  King  they  sought; 
What  offering  is  there  left  for  me? 

I  cannot  bring  to  crown  my  Christ 

From  far  Cathay  its  glittering  gold. 
Nor  Araby's  perfumes  unpriced, 
Nor  pearls  from  India's  seas  uprolled. 


2  Mrs.  Browning. 

121 


THE  CHRISTMAS  CANTICLES 

Nor  of  the  wealth  that  decks  the  mind, 
The  gold  of  thought  and  fancy's  flowers. 

In  one  fair  diadem  entwined. 
To  fitly  crown  this  King  of  ours; 

But  I  with  humble  shepherds  come. 
With  them  the  heralds'  hjTnn  I  hear; 

O  make,  dear  Lord,  this  heart  thy  home. 
And  turn  to  pearl  each  bitter  tear! 


122 


XIV 

NUNC  DIMITTIS—TBE  SWAN 
SONG  OF  A  SAINT 

BRIEF  biographies  are  the  best.  The 
Bible  is  rich  with  these  vivid  pic- 
tures of  human  hfe,  penned  in  a 
few  striking  phrases.  The  story  of  Simeon, 
the  singer  of  that  sweetest  canticle,  the 
Nunc  Dimittu,  is  a  very  cameo,  cut  ^^th 
perfect  art.  Little  as  is  told,  he  is  counted 
worthy  of  one  of  the  "Beholds!"  of  the 
Bible.  That  index  finger  of  high  value 
is  followed  by  a  perfect  picture  of  the 
character  of  a  saint. 

Simeon  had  an  all-round  religion;  he  is 
described  as  a  "just  and  devout  man." 
He  was  righteous  toward  his  fellow  men 
and  reverent  toward  God.  Heaven  and 
earth  were  joined  in  his  character;  piety 
and  morahty  met  in  his  life.  In  him  were 
united  both  the  inward  inspiration  and  the 
outward  expression  of  true  reHgion. 

This  saintly  soul  had  a  noble  patience; 

123 


THE  CHRISTMAS  CANTICLES 

he  was  "waiting  for  the  consolation  of 
Israel."  Hebrew  history  had  been  filled 
with  such  watchers  and  waiters.  The  for- 
ward look  is  the  chief  characteristic  of 
patriarch  and  prophet.  As  Jesus  has  told 
us,  Abraham  rejoiced  at  the  sight  of  his 
coming  day.  And  although  the  voice  of 
prophecy  had  been  silent  for  centuries, 
still  to  the  Temple  at  Jerusalem  there  came 
seerlike  souls  whose  faces  were  turned 
toward  the  dawning.  We  know  the  names 
of  two  of  them — Anna,  the  aged  prophet- 
ess on  whose  lips  still  trembled  the  mes- 
sage of  divine  inspiration,  and  Simeon, 
whose  eyes,  dimmed  w^th  age,  were  sud- 
denly lighted  with  the  gleam  of  the  new 
day. 

God  needs  patient  waiters  as  well  as 
earnest  workers,  for  waiting  is  a  part  of 
the  discipline  of  life. 

"God  doth  not  need 
Either  man's  work  or  his  own  gifts;  who  best 

Bear  his  mild  yoke,  they  serve  him  best;  his  state 
Is  kinglj^;  thousands  at  his  bidding  speed 
And  post  o'er  land  and  ocean  without  rest. 

They  also  serve,  who  only  stand  and  wait."^ 


1  John  Milton. 

124 


NUNC  DIMITTIS 

Simeon  was  well  aware  that  real  wait- 
ing is  more  than  mere  passivity,  but 
includes  watching.  So  he  was  constantly 
in  the  house  of  God;  he  was  there  when 
the  lily-shafts  of  the  Temple  caught  the 
crimson  glory  of  dawn,  and  when  the 
evening  lamps  were  lighted  he  lingered 
still.  How  every  rumor  made  his  heart 
throb  with  expectancy!  Had  the  shep- 
herds' story  reached  his  ears?  How  he 
must  have  scanned  the  face  of  every  Httle 
child  brought  into  the  Temple  courts! 
And  in  that  place  of  duty  and  worship, 
there  came  at  last  the  revelation. 

His  was  an  inspired  old  age.  Youth  is 
not  better  than  age  when  the  latter  is 
filled  with  holy  fire.  He  had  December 
on  his  head,  but  May  within  his  heart. 
Such  fives  are  like  the  evening  primrose 
whose  color  and  fragrance  await  the 
gathering  shadows  to  develop  its  perfect 
beauty.  No  spell  can  keep  the  heart 
young  like  the  grace  of  God;  it  is  the 
genuine  elixir  of  life,  the  true  fountain  of 
youth.  It  is  vastly  fine  for  age  to  look 
forward  in  our  times  as  well  with  hope 
for  the  church  and  the  world;  when  it 

125 


THE  CHRISTMAS  CANTICLES 

takes  the  child  in  its  arms  then  will  fall 
the  prophetic  fire.  And  this  length  of 
forward  vision  gives  breadth  as  well. 
Simeon,  who  is  waiting  for  the  consolation, 
must  include  in  his  canticle  that  fine 
phrase  from  the  ancient  Oracle  of  Con- 
solation which  describes  the  Servant  of 
Jehovah  as  a  "Light  to  lighten  the  Gen- 
tiles." Spirituality  clears  his  soul  of 
bigotry.  Beautiful  old  age,  when  hope 
lingers  and  when  the  mind  grows  broader 
and  not  narrower  with  increasing  years! 

God  had  promised  Simeon  that  "he 
should  not  see  death  until  he  had  seen 
the  Lord's  Christ."  In  some  senses  all 
life  is  conditional;  "a  man  is  immortal 
until  his  work  is  done" — that  is,  until  the 
piupose  of  a  life  is  consummated.  Healthy 
folks  do  not  want  to  die.  As  Horace  says, 
"No  man  goes  satisfied  from  the  feast  of 
life."  Muhlenberg  was  disappointed  in 
love  when  he  wrote,  "I  would  not  live 
alway."  But  to  see  Christ  consummates 
life;  it  is  to  behold  life's  full  pattern  and 
guess  its  deepest  secret.  When  this  full 
vision  comes,  then  only  can  the  soul  sing 
Nunc  Dimittis,  the  sunset  hymn  of  life 

126 


NUNC  DIMITTIS 

after  the  day's  work  is  done,  the  golden 
melody  of  a  softly  fading  light  that  melts 
into  the  eternal  morning. 

"Mine  eyes  have  seen  thy  salvation!" 
What  did  he  see?  Surely  no  aureoled 
brow,  no  infant  marked  from  others  by 
an  encircling  nimbus  of  light;  he  saw  only 
the  peasant  Babe  in  swaddling  clothes 
that  the  shepherds  found  in  the  manger  at 
Bethlehem.  He  has  that  loftier  vision  that 
knows  that  redemption  cannot  come  by 
power  but  by  love.  And  so  he  takes  the 
child  in  his  aged  arms,  while  he  himself 
rests  his  soul  in  the  spiritual  strength  of 
the  Divine  Child.  To  see  Jesus  by  faith 
is  to  see  salvation. 

To  see  Christ  is  to  prepare  for  death; 
it  prepares  life's  flower  for  plucking  and 
its  fruit  for  gathering.  Though  we  Hve 
far  inland,  it  is  sometimes  good  to  lend 
an  ear  to  the  seaward  breezes  that  bring 
to  us  the  music  of  the  far-off  ocean;  so 
it  is  often  well  in  hours  of  strength  and 
joy  to  think  of  death.  "See  death,"  we 
must,  every  one  of  us;  but  have  you 
seen  the  Lord's  Christ?  See  him  before 
you  die,  and  you  shall  not  be  afraid  to 

127 


THE  CHRISTMAS  CANTICLES 

see  him  beyond  that  horror-haunted  chasm 
mortals  call  the  grave,  but  which  Christ 
has  made  the  portal  of  paradise. 

Let  us  listen  to  Simeon's  song  in  its 
entirety : 

"Now,  Master,  let  thy  servant  go. 
Go  in  peace,  as  thou  didst  promise. 
Mine  eyes  have  seen  thy  saving  power 
Which  thou  hast  prepared  before  the  face  of 

all  peoples. 
A  light  of  revealing  to  the  Gentiles 
And  the  glory  of  thy  people  Israel." 

Death  is  release  to  the  faithful  servant; 
it  is  emancipation  to  the  slaves  of  mor- 
tality. Jesus  has  transformed  death  from 
doom  into  deliverance.  In  iEschylus' 
tragedy  of  Agamemnon^  he  pictures  a 
house  servant,  watching  on  the  roof  of 
the  palace  at  Mycenae,  waiting  for  the 
signal  of  the  fall  of  Troy.  Seeing  that 
sign  will  release  him  from  his  long  vigil. 
At  last  it  comes,  the  beacon  fires  blazing 
from  isle  to  isle  across  the  iEgean,  and  he 
descends  from  weary  waiting  to  find  sleep 
and  rest.  So  it  was  with  Simeon.  He 
had   tarried  long  in   expectation,  and  at 

last   the  herald   angels  flashed  the  good 
128 


NUNC  DIMITTIS 

tidings  from  star  to  star  across  the  seas 
of  space  until  it  reached  the  earth  and 
the  child  who  had  come  from  the  bosom 
of  the  Father  to  the  bosom  of  Mary  passes 
to  the  longing  arms  of  Simeon,  the  son  of 
the  promise.     Deliverance  has  come! 

In  the  Old  Testament  we  often  meet 
dark  views  of  death.  The  words  fairly 
shudder  as  they  fall  from  the  pen  of  the 
WTiters:  "Lover  and  friend  thou  hast  put 
far  from  me,  and  mine  acquaintance  in 
darkness."  But  in  this  swan  song  of 
Simeon,  Nunc  Dimittisy  Christmas  looks 
forward  to  Easter  Day  in  its  testimony  of 
the  soul's  victory  over  death.  The  grim 
visitor  of  the  skeleton  hand  and  icy  touch 
has  become  a  fair  angel  whose  lips  are 
melodious  with  the  music  of  heaven,  and 
whose  hands  are  full  of  the  fragrance  of 
its  flowers.  Let  pessimistic  Hamlet  moan, 
"The  rest  is  silence";  Christian  faith  looks 
in  the  face  of  the  Risen  Lord  and  cries, 
"Mine  eyes  have  seen  thy  salvation!" 

How  dreary  are  the  worldling's  thoughts 
of  death!  The  reckless  humor  of  Rabelais 
clouds  with  seriousness  as  he  faces  "the 
great  Perhaps";  Hobbes,  the  deist,  shrinks 

129 


THE  CHRISTMAS  CANTICLES 

as  he  gasps,  "I  am  taking  a  leap  in  the 
dark";  Gambetta,  struck  by  the  assassin's 
bullet,  cries,  Je  suis  perdu,  "I  am  lost!" 
But  John  Wesley  writes,  "Our  people  die 
well,"  and  himseK  bravely  faces  the  future, 
saying,  "The  best  of  all  is  God  is  with 
us."  Paul  puts  this  triumphant  truth  in 
a  perfect  phrase:  "To  live  is  Christ,  to 
die  is  gain."  Death  the  despot  has  be- 
come the  dehverer.  Is  it  any  wonder 
that  the  great  Christian  hymn,  Te  Deum 
Laudamus,  brings  close  together  the  mes- 
sages of  the  two  great  Christian  festivals, 
Christmas  and  Easter  Day.^^ 

"When  thou  tookest  upon  thee  to  deliver  man 
Thou  didst  humble  thyself  to  be  born  of  a  Virgin; 
When  thou  didst  overcome  the  sharpness  of  death, 
Thou  didst  open  the  kingdom  of  heaven  to  all 
believers." 

In  nearly  all  hturgies,  the  Nunc  Dimittis 
is  used  as  an  evening  hymn.  It  is  very 
fitting  for  the  vesper  hour  of  fading  light. 
But  it  is  also  a  matin  hymn,  for  it  sees 
in  the  evening  star  of  memory  the  morn- 
ing star  of  hope. 

*'So  sinks  the  day-star  in  the  ocean  bed 
And  yet  anon  repairs  his  drooping  head 
130 


NUNC  DIMITTIS 

And  tricks  his  beams  and  with  new  spangled  ore 
Flames  in  the  forehead  of  the  morning  sky."^ 

Thus  the  first  Christmas  day  not  only 
surrounded  with  song  the  cradle  of  the 
Christ  but  has  filled  with  holy  harmony 
the  dying  hours  of  his  followers.  Thomas 
Guthrie  on  his  deathbed  called  for  music, 
and  when  asked  what  they  should  sing, 
replied,  "Just  give  me  a  baimie's  hymn!" 
For  death  is  birth  to  the  saved  soul. 
There  is  a  music  of  the  borderland  such 
as  Tennyson's  May  Queen  heard  "in  the 
wild  March  morning": 

"So  now  I  think  my  time  is  near.    I  trust  it  is.    I 
know 
The  blessed  music  went  that  way  my  soul  will 
have  to  go." 

In  her  passing  hours,  Susanna  Wesley, 
the  mother  of  Methodism,  said  to  her 
family  and  friends,  "Children,  when  I  am 
gone  sing  a  psalm  of  praise  to  God!" 
And,  a  little  later,  they  broke  the  strange 
stillness  left  by  the  departure  of  a  saintly 
soul  with  a  song  of  sacred  joy  and  went 
forth  to  preach  and  sing  the  gospel  mes- 
sage and  music  around  the  world.    Even 

^John  Milton. 

131 


THE  CHRISTMAS  CANTICLES 

John  Keats  felt  that  death  has  been 
transformed  into  triumph : 

"Let  me  have  music  dying, 
I  seek  no  more  delight." 

And  that  hour  of  departure  and  dehv- 
erance  hears  not  only  the  parting  paeans 
of  human  friends  who  answer  its  invitation, 

"Come  sing  to  me  of  heaven 
When  I  am  called  to  die. 
Sing  songs  of  holy  ecstasy 
To  waft  my  soul  on  high," 

but  their  spiritual  senses  are  often  strength- 
ened to  hear  singing  that  earthly  ears 
cannot  hear.  All  about  this  dying  world, 
whose  songs  at  last  sink  into  silence,  is 
sung  by  spirit  voices  the  unending  sym- 
phony of  Life  Eternal. 

The  Nunc  Dimiitis  is  the  swan  song  of 
a  saint,  but  it  is  also  the  overture  of  the 
New  Song  of  the  Redeemed.  Christmas, 
the  birthday  of  the  Saviour  of  men,  has 
turned  all  death-days  of  his  disciples  into 
the  birthday  of  immortality.  The  Even- 
Song  of  Simeon  is  a  Matin  Hymn  of  the 
New  Day. 


132 


XV 

THE  BLESSED  BOYHOOD  OF 
JESUS 

THE  Gospel  according  to  Saint  Luke 
touches  the  Hfe  of  our  Lord  at 
every  point — the  Babe  in  the  man- 
ger, the  Child  in  Simeon's  arms,  the  Boy 
in  the  Temple,  and  the  Man  of  Galilee. 
It  is  preeminently  the  gospel  of  the  Son 
of  Man,  using  his  perfect  humanity  as  an 
organ  on  which  to  play  the  music  of  his 
divinity.  For  the  Christ  was  not  less, 
but  more  man  than  the  rest  of  us.  His 
complete  humanity  serves  to  reveal  his 
divine  nature,  just  as  a  flawless  crystal 
transmits  the  sunlight  unstained. 

There  is  a  wise  reticence  in  the  gospel 
accoimts  of  the  youth  of  Jesus.  There 
are  in  them  none  of  the  repelling  marvels 
of  the  apocryphal  stories,  which,  utterly 
ignoring  all  natural  boyishness,  picture 
him  as  working  absurd  and  sometimes 
spiteful  miracles.  There  is  no  unearthly 
halo  around  his  brow.  He  is  a  truly  hu- 
man child,  with  a  normal  physical,  men- 
133 


THE  CHRISTMAS  CANTICLES 

tal,  and  spiritual  development.  There  is 
no  hint  of  any  hot-bed  precocity;  happy 
is  the  child  who  is  not  born  grown-up. 
The  first  duty  of  any  child  is  to  be  young, 
and  the  second  is  to  grow. 

If  the  Saviour  of  men  had  appeared  full 
grown,  he  would  have  been  fatally  sep- 
arated from  us;  he  revealed  the  worth  of 
childhood  to  a  world  that  had  hitherto 
disregarded  it.  Henceforth  every  babe  is 
"that  holy  thing,"  a  new  memory  of  Eden 
bringing  back  the  Golden  Age.  May  we 
not  believe  that  still,  in  the  depths  of  his 
divine  consciousness,  every  fact  of  his 
human  career  abides  as  a  present  posses- 
sion. He  is  still  mighty  with  the  strong 
and  weak  with  the  weak.  For  the  babe, 
he  still  lies  on  his  mother  bosom;  for  the 
boy,  he  still  plays  in  the  carpenter  shop; 
for  the  workman,  he  still  toils  at  his 
trade. 

At  the  age  of  adolescence,  like  every 
other  Jewish  boy,  he  is  confirmed  as  a 
"son  of  the  law,"  and  goes  with  his  parents 
to  Jerusalem  for  the  great  Paschal  sacra- 
ment. With  what  delight  any  child  makes 
the  first  visit  to  a  great  city!     We  can 

134 


BLESSED  BOYHOOD  OF  JESITS 

hear  his  boyish  voice  joining  in  the  Pil- 
grim psalms:  "I  will  lift  up  mine  eyes 
unto  the  hills,  whence  cometh  my  help"; 
"I  was  glad  when  they  said  unto  me,  Let 
us  go  up  to  the  house  of  Jehovah";  "My 
soul  waiteth  for  the  Lord";  up  to  that 
final  chorus  when,  standing  in  the  Temple 
courts,  they  chanted,  "Behold,  bless  ye 
Jehovah,  all  ye  servants  of  Jehovah," 
and  the  white-robed  priests  intoned  the 
answering  benediction,  "Jehovah,  that 
made  heaven  and  earth,  bless  thee  out  of 
Zion."  As  he  listened  to  the  antiphonal 
chanting  of  the  temple  choirs,  did  he  not 
recall  the  Magnificat,  the  Benedictus,  the 
Gloria  in  Excelsis,  and  the  Nunc  Dimittis, 
of  which  his  mother  had  doubtless  told 
him,  and  find  in  them  a  transition  from 
the  psalmody  of  the  Old  Testament  to 
the  newborn  minstrelsy  of  his  New  Testa- 
ment church.  How  his  heart  throbbed 
with  an  awful  gladness  at  this  vision  of 
the  city  of  David,  the  throne  of  Solomon, 
the  fortress  of  the  Maccabees,  soon  to 
become  the  scene  of  his  own  suffering  and 
the  site  of  his  sepulcher!    He  must  have 

recalled    this    experience    when,    twenty 
135 


THE  CHRISTMAS  CANTICLES 

years  later,  he  heard  other  children  sing- 
ing their  "Hosannas!"  in  the  Temple. 

Hofmann's  lovely  picture  of  "The  Boy 
Jesus  in  the  Temple,"  can  add  little  or 
nothing  to  the  exquisite  narrative  of 
Luke.  The  story  is  a  single  flower  from 
the  secluded  garden  of  his  life,  plucked 
just  as  it  was  swelling  toward  full  blossom. 
The  lost  boy  is  found,  not  among  the 
sights  and  scenes  of  the  strange  city,  but 
in  his  "Father's  house."  Where  else 
should  his  sorrowing  parents  have  looked 
for  him.P  Not  they  alone,  but  every  father 
and  mother  some  time  must  learn  and 
bear  this  hard  lesson — that  their  child  is 
no  longer  wholly  theirs,  but  must  live  an 
independent  life.  It  is  an  awful  and  lonely 
moment  when  the  spontaneous  life  of  the 
child  passes  into  the  reflective  hfe  of  the 
budding  man,  when  he  cries,  as  Richter 
put  it,  "I  am  a  Jfe/"  The  old  routine  and 
formulas  will  not  longer  serve;  the  indi- 
vidual stands  out  from  the  tribe,  "wrapped 
in  the  solitude  of  his  own  originality." 
Every  child  has  two  educations,  man's 
and  God's,  and  it  is  indeed  fortunate  when 

these  blend  in  perfect  unison. 
136 


BLESSED  BOYHOOD  OF  JESUS 

Then  follow  eighteen  years  of  waiting 
whose  only  record  is,  "Jesus  increased  in 
wisdom  and  stature  and  in  favor  with 
God  and  man."  They  were  not  idle 
years,  but  filled  with  a  silent  growth.  It 
was  not  a  development  from  the  im- 
perfect to  the  perfect,  but  rather  the 
constant  unfolding  of  a  native  perfect 
at  every  stage  of  its  growth.  As  from  the 
flawless  block  of  marble  little  by  little 
is  disengaged  the  artist's  ideal,  so  God's 
pleasiu-e  grows  with  his  growth  until  its 
full  disclosure  in  his  gracious  public  min- 
istry. Secretly  in  his  spirit  is  shaping  the 
vision  of  the  Kingdom.  His  knowledge  of 
his  own  nature  seems  to  have  been  a  truly 
human  knowledge;  from  the  germ  of  a 
unique  filial  relation  to  the  Father,  now 
realized  in  the  temple  courts,  it  unfolds 
until  fully  ready  to  hear  the  voice  from 
heaven,  "This  is  my  beloved  Son!" 

Obedience  to  his  earthly  parents  was  a 
part  of  his  training  for  divine  Sonship. 
There  is  never  any  real  conflict  between  a 
divine  mission  and  a  human  duty. 

"O  thou  whose  infant  feet  were  found 
Within  thy  Father's  shrine, 
137 


THE  CHRISTMAS  CANTICLES 

Whose  years  with  changeless  glory  crowned. 
Were  all  alike  divine; 

"Dependent  on  thy  bounteous  breath. 

We  seek  thy  grace  alone. 
In  childhood,  manhood,  age,  and  death, 
To  keep  us  still  thine  own."* 


1  Reginald  Heber. 


138 


A  POSTLUDE 

The  Canticles  of  the  Incarnation  dis- 
close the  spiritual  significance  of  song. 
Music  is  the  most  mystic  of  all  arts — 
the  one  best  fitted  to  express  the  heavenly 
life.  It  is  the  speech  of  emotion  and  can 
express  grief  or  joy  as  no  other  medium 
can.  No  wonder  that  the  Bible  is  as  full 
of  music  as  the  forest  of  birdsong.  For 
it  is  a  sort  of  universal  speech — the  one 
most  expressive  of  the  subtler  states  of 
the  soul. 

Music  is  a  witness  of  the  unseen  world. 
Its  material,  the  vibrations  of  air,  is  the 
least  tangible  of  all  earthly  elements.  Its 
origin  is  divine.  As  Confucius  said, 
"Heaven  is  the  house  of  hymns."  The 
redeemed  are  described  in  the  Apocalypse 
as  "having  the  harps  of  God."  It  is  the 
language  of  the  angels,  the  dialect  of  the 
New  Jerusalem. 

As  the  rehgious  arts  are  the  greatest 
of  all  arts,  rehgious  songs  are  the  highest 
of  all  songs.    There  are  secular  songs,  sweet 

139 


THE  CHRISTMAS  CANTICLES 

and  inspiring,  such  as  boat-songs  when  the 
"oars  keep  time  to  the  music's  chime," 
harvest-songs  accompanied  by  the  rhyth- 
mic rustle  of  falhng  grain,  and  national 
songs  measured  by  the  marching  of  mighty 
hosts.  But  sweetest  of  all,  and  the 
source  of  all,  are  the  high  praises  of  God, 
the  songs  of  the  sanctuary,  the  songs  of 
heaven.  As  we  praise  God  here  below  by 
service,  we  shall  serve  him  in  the  high 
countries  by  praise. 

Bethlehem  and  Calvary  have  given  birth 
to  a  New  Song.  Heaven  had  great  music 
before — the  chant  of  creation  choired  by 
the  morning  stars,  the  hymn  of  seraphs 
heard  by  prophetic  ears,  and  the  Christ- 
mas Canticles  to  which  we  have  been 
listening.  But  after  the  cross,  the  per- 
fumed air  of  paradise  is  stirred  with  a  new 
and  divine  melody,  unheard  in  heaven 
before.  It  is  the  hymn  of  the  new  creation, 
the  song  of  the  firstborn  of  earth. 

For  the  incarnation  and  the  atonement 
have  introduced  a  new  theme  into  life. 
Even  the  angels  cannot  sing  it.  It  is  of 
a  love  never  seen  or  felt  before.  None 
sing  like  redeemed  souls.    Redemption  is 

140 


A  POSTLUDE 

greater  than  creation;  it  starts  the  song 
of  the  new  heavens  and  the  new  earth. 
The  New  Song  is  the  Te  Deum  of  the 
rescued  after  the  greatest  of  all  con- 
flicts— the  battle  of  the  cross  with  sin 
and  death. 

It  is  a  new  song,  one  that  misses  all 
the  monotony  of  earthly  music.  Even  the 
loveliest  airs  sometimes  tire  us.  John 
Stuart  Mill  lamented  the  limitations  of 
music — only  five  tones  and  two  semitones 
in  the  scale — how  soon  it  would  be  ex- 
hausted! But  the  new  life  will  never 
know  weariness  or  satiety.  Forever  fresh 
scenery,  new  thoughts,  joys,  and  expe- 
riences, new  hearts,  Hves,  hopes,  and 
graces,  new  disclosures  of  God,  and  new 
triumphs  of  his  love.  Forever  new  souls 
come  home  to  glory  and  new  worlds  are 
conquered  by  his  love.  The  new  life 
has  no  stale  praises;  its  songs  keep  pace 
with  an  unfailing  Providence,  as  the 
enthroned  Lamb  continually  opens  the 
seals  of  his  book  of  mystery. 

It  is  a  new  choir  that  sings.  It  is  a 
mighty  chorus — they  believe  in  congre- 
gational singing  up  there!    It  is  made  up 

141 


THE  CHRISTMAS  CANTICLES 

of  the  attuned  chords  of  many  types  of 
consecrated  character.  There  is  a  una- 
nimity in  their  chorus — the  "sound  as  of 
many  waters  and  mighty  thunderings." 
And  they  are  trained  singers.  Only  such 
can  sing  a  new  tune  well. 

Earth  trained  them.  They  bring  the 
human  note  into  heaven  as  the  Christmas 
angels  brought  the  celestial  music  down 
to  earth.  In  the  organ  of  eternity,  the 
vox  humana  is  a  necessary  stop,  the  sweet- 
est that  sends  forth  all  elemental  voices. 
It  is  made  out  of  earth's  experience  of 
troubles  and  disasters.  It  began  on 
earth.  These  new  choristers  of  glory 
came 

"Out  of  the  mire 
Into  the  choir.'* 

Across  the  sea  that  once  tossed  with 
storm  and  tempest,  floats  this  heavenly 
hymn  and  the  tossing  waves  become  a 
glassy  sea  shining  with  celestial  fire. 
Trial  is  the  training  for  the  new  song. 
"These  are  they  that  came  out  of  great 
tribulation."  Some  naturalists  claim  that 
the  songs  of  birds  had  their  origin  in  cries 

142 


A  POSTLUDE 

of  pain.  Shelley  says,  "Our  sweetest 
songs  are  filled  with  saddest  thought,"  and 
thus  describes  the  education  of  the  poets, 
"They  learn  in  suffering  what  they  teach 
in  song."  Music  is  not  a  cold  art  that  a 
cold  heart  can  learn.  Even  the  blessed 
angels  in  their  loving  ministries  can  never 
sing  as  we  shall  some  day.  They  have 
never  known  the  moaning  of  that  dismal 
sea  we  call  death.  In  our  mimdane 
misery,  God  is  tuning  his  human  harps 
for  the  eternal  symphony. 

That  new  choir  is  a  vested  choir;  they 
are  clothed  in  white  robes.  They  follow 
the  Lamb  in  his  sacrifice  and  in  his  sin- 
lessness.  "Therefore  are  they  near  the 
throne."  Theirs  is  the  faith  that  falters 
not,  the  purity  that  palters  not,  and  the 
love  that  alters  not. 

Have  we  not  caught  in  the  Canticles 
of  the  first  Christmas  the  keynote  of  that 
new  song?  Surely,  that  new  chord  was 
sounded  when  the  angelic  army  cried 
"Glory!"  as  the  seraph  preacher  gave  to 
the  shepherds  the  sign  of  the  swaddling 
bands  and  the  manger  bed.  Now  we  can 
understand    why    the    early    church   fol- 

143 


THE  CHRISTMAS  CANTICLES 

lowed  the  Gloria  in  Excelsis  with  the 
words : 

"O  Lord,  the  only  begotten  Son,  Jesus  Christ, 
O  Lotd  God,  Lamb  of  God,  Son  of  the  Father, 
That  takest  away  the  sins  of  the  world. 
Have  mercy  upon  us." 

Song  has  always  been  joined  to  sacrifice. 
Even  in  the  ancient  chronicles  we  read: 
"When  the  burnt-offering  began,  the  song 
of  the  Lord  began  also."  The  slain  Lamb, 
the  supreme  sacrifice,  whose  birth  came  in 
a  tide  of  heavenly  and  earthly  music,  by 
his  death  has  started  a  new  song.  The 
Christmas  Canticles  have  grown  into  an 
everlasting  oratorio  sung  by  the  heirs  of 
salvation. 

"O  that,  with  yonder  sacred  throng, 
We  at  his  feet  may  fall! 
We'll  join  the  everlasting  song. 
And  crown  him  Lord  of  all!" 


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